Cyberpunk 2077: When To Start Phantom Liberty, When To Make Sure To Save 

i would recommend at least doing the first mission of phantom liberty when you get access to it so you can unlock the relic abilities. they are very fun to use!

The mission where you make the choice is "firestarter" just save regularly.

As vague as Paul is being here, it is clear to me that he means that you should enter the Phantom Liberty questline, starting with the 'Dog Eat Dog' quest, right before you begin 'Nocturne'. Personally I think he is being too cautious. So, if you are at level 20-25, you can do 'Dog Eat Dog' and the following until you open up Relic powers(i.e. ‘Get It Together’), then bail out and go back to the game main questline. It doesn't really do anything to harm your immersion with the main quests, as long as you bail right after that point(i.e. the first part of PL).

Definitely complete your love interest and friends side quest before starting (panam, river, rouge etc) to get extra dialogue options and new texts from your lover

I agree that it seems to make more sense to start PL in late game rather than mid-game. I'm not that far into it, only did a couple of hours playthrough last night, but Dogtown is fantastic. I feel like it's a lot bigger of an area than I was expecting it to be and it's easy to get lost in (but that's a good thing). Really enjoying what CDPR has given us so far!

To be fair, it does feel more expansive than just “DLC.” The content that you get with Phantom Liberty exceeds the quality of most games nowadays.

Coming fresh off of Starfield, and having never played Cyberpunk, I gotta say, this game is fire!! Soo damn good!

The best time to do Phantom Liberty is when you're at the "meet Honako" quest in the main game. There are a ton of good iconic contained within PL if you leave it till you've completed everything else you'll never get to fully enjoy them. Get to Honako Point, do Phantom Liberty, clear the Night City map if you're a completionist (like me), and finish the main game.

Completely DISAGREE. 1st your missing out on playing the game not using all your relic abilities. 2nd. The endings can change in the normal playthru based on your choices in phantom liberty. Why would you want to play having the Relic abilities for only 14 hours. Its a complete waste of that talent tree. You shouldn't always listen to youtubers. It's only his opinion. You should go into the dlc about a 3rd of the way thru the game. That's a perfect point to hop in you'll get context of the game and understand whats happening. Plus that'll give you plenty of time to enjoy all the relic tier abilities. CDPR intended for you to play it during the middle of the play thru of the main campaign. That's the best way to play it

I just want a heist skip option. I don't want to skip that far ahead to the VDBs.

First game of this type for me ..I am an older player and have to say it is a terrific game .. not going to lie I’m a bit lost a lot .. but I’m slowly figuring it out and enjoying it very much ..

Thank you very much for delivering this information in a spoiler-free yet informative way. I know a lot of gamers appreciate your degree of tact.

I started a new save and new character after having three playthroughs previously (and over 300 hours). I wanted to make sure to get the new 2.0 update in its entirety after not having played the game in at least 9 months. I also increased the overall difficulty on this play through and it has made it more challenging-while also feeling fresh because of the update! I am flying through the main story content faster than previous playthroughs, and after 12 hours I’m already at the Pacifica/VDBs mission. However, I’m going to play a lot more of the side-content before going into Phantom Liberty. I just want to level up my character a lot more before jumping in there. It’s been really fun to be back in the Cyberpunk world after so long. Been playing a lot of Starfield-and it’s been awesome- but I have to say that this game just scratches a completely different itch for me and it feels great!

They should be offended. This is literally an expansion which I guess you could put under the category of DLC but DLC can be something as dumb as horse armor. Old heads remember when any additional purchase to a game was always a huge expansion and cosmetics were free.

In my experience the best time to do it is just before the Nocturne mission which is a point of no return. At that point you should be pretty high level already and have most of the skills where you want them to be and have some good gear as well. That alone will make the Phantom Liberty part much easier and way more fun to do

I would recommend that once you hit a certain point in PL, you drop a save file. You cannot go back and repeat endings as you can with the base game. You can only experience an ending once per character, unless you reload a save.

Hopefully they've provided the same 'point of no return' warning for Phantom Liberty so I can experience the end of the PL story and then decide if it's worth it going back to finish things up in the base game. I'm sure PL does a great job of wrapping up the story, but it's hard to imagine a more satisfying ending than V leaving Night City with the Aldecados and Judy. Edit: Watched the rest of the video and apparently they do not provide such a warning so thank you for the heads up Paul.

I haven't played the game at all yet. I got it when it released but with all the issues I never got past the 1 chapter. So most of the game will be all new to me.

I rolled a new character for it. Started last night. Been playing a lot of starfield lately and wow I had forgotten how great this game looks on PC with all the fancy NVIDIA switches..

It is insane to go directly to phantom liberty from a new game start. If your character is already well developed I guess you would go straight into phantom liberty because... you get the prompt to start it from Songbird immediately after completing MapTien the VooDooBoyz mission and anybody at a high level would have already completed that but if you just downloaded 2.0 and PL then you would have a huge learning curve to figure out all the new features. So if you want to wait after starting a new game to learn the new features, dont start the VDBz mission till you want to go into PL. What sux about it, is if you go straight into PL from a new start, and you have already played the game and know it well , you start at level 15 with all green cyberware (pre chosen for you) your Cyberware capacity is set at 71, you get $20K (nothing), you get 100 white components, and 20 green (much lower than if you actually played till level 15), You have a green cyberdeck, you get a choice of different green weapons to use and you are squishy and weak as F**K. Of course you can go thru it because they make the enemies weak also but...one of the best combat action you will see in PL is the very beginning saving Meyers, taking on the Chimera (Super MECH) and then the ending combat is great, everything in between is gigs and missions that are not as thrilling IMHO. The mission where you make a choice that splits into 2 different endings its called Firestarter. I would always start a new game and level up to around level 40 at minimum before starting the VDBz mission. Cyberware comes in different options at lvl 1, then lvl 20 (new cyberware) and then lvl 30 and you wont have the better cyberware if not at those levels and if you dont have Edgerunner (20 in Tech) you will be at a dissadvantage. I was going to do a video on how rediculous going directly to PL with what CDPR offers you is insane but why, no one really watches my videos anyway, so...

I think doing chippin in and everything with Johnny is the perfect final pre phantom liberty quest line

i love this and wish i had seen it earlier. I booted up 100% preheist save when 2.0 dropped and spent the rest of the week getting to voodoo boys and figuring out the combat and changes. then jumped in right after “I walk the line” and it certainly felt like it would have been beneficial to start late game for more options and easter eggs to be triggered. in any case, i wanted to see the story play out and once i finished it i went back to the save after voodoo boys and now i’m gonna wait until all the main endings are opened before starting the Dog eat Dog quest again.

I didn't start playing the game until very recently. I picked it up on the Steam Summer Sale, and really happy I did. That being said. I waited to start the entirety of Phantom Liberty until after I completed my first ending of that Hanako mission. I then proceeded to steam roll Phantom Liberty at terminal velocity, and that was a disappoint to me at first because in my ending with Hanako I gave Johnny the driver's seat, picked up Pride, and didn't get to keep it, or Prejudice post mission. But, I did get a stupid shovel that I found. Sad. I didn't understand why the post game put me back to the Hanako mission. I was confused. Then proceeding to Phantom Liberty, it made zero sense to me because in my ending, I made Johnny walk across the bridge and stay in Cyber Space with Alt to keep his promise to V. So, when I went into Phantom Liberty, it made no sense to me that Johnny was miraculously back. It didn't click until later when google searching, expecting this to have been a bug. This all being said. I did NOT manually save before that undercover mission, and will have to go back and make a whole new V. Which I am not upset about at all. Before getting super deep in the game I made three characters, one per background. I put about 30 hours in each one. I wound up playing through a female Street Kid, as a Netrunner, because I fell in love with that play style, and was feeling inspired by Lucy from Edgerunners. But, I was let down by a lot of critical story moments when my level 20 Netrunner that was fully spec'd in the intelligence tree "wasn't good enough" in a few main story missions and had to go see other runners to proceed the story. (Both in the base game and Phantom Liberty. I thought I was a living effin' legend?) That being said, I'm definitely playing all over again to make a male nomad, because I went back and did the Hanako mission a couple more times while waiting for Reed to call me back at a few points. I feel like the "best" possible play through now is a male nomad, who romanced Panam, and got the Aldecaldos ending. So, I'm going to have to go all the way back through, and complete every gig, side biz, etc, all over again, to get what I think would be greenest of green grass on the other side of the fence. I also want to make sure that I get a manual save on that undercover mission to secure all possible outcomes. Great video over all. I really liked it. Subscribing, now.

I'm glad I watched this, I like to do the side quests and stuff to build up my character for the main quest

The thing is you get cyber upgrades, weapons, and other benefits like the relic system by playing Phantom Liberty that you can then bring back into the main campaign and have a much better experience. I love when DLC becomes available early to mid-way in a game, because there are almost always new and cool things you can then use in the main story. That's why I always did the DLC in Witcher 3 as early as I could, like the mutagen system for example, that completely changed the way you play the game. Honestly I'm not a fan of any new systems, weapons etc. you have to wait until late game to access, because what's the point, the game will be over soon, and you won't get to use them much.

I have played the entire main game four times (450 hours) and I have played Phantom Liberty as soon as it came out. That's why I have knowledge of all the endings and I have decided to play a new game for the first time with version 2.01, so this time I will get to Voodoo Boys and jump to PL to play the ending that leaves me back in Night City to do all the remaining primary and secondary missions and then do the finale with Panam but this time I will have all the advantages obtained in PL to use.

Okay so not really related to the game in question, I have heard your name in passing when the topic of game journalists comes up. I recently discovered your channel and can I just say that its refreshing to see that you have passion for your field. Not to disparage other journos but you do get the impression they would rather be writing op-eds on other subject matters sometimes so its a bit of a novelty to see someone actually enjoy their work. Keep it up, you've earned a subscriber and a fan.

the decision point is during the quest chippin in, where you can choose between a red and a blue pill!🤗

I’ve been looking for a video like this to explain this. I rushed thru part 1 not realizing I missed all the side missions

What is really shocking to me is how good this game is after playing starfield 😅

COOL ! Thanks! I am totally new to the CyberPunk universe and i am enjoying it 1000% although still struggling with the "mechanics, build ups, playstyles etc etc!" just a lot of information ! so knowing this is PERFECT! One less thing to try to figure out on my own.

It's odd that CDPR would recommend people to start fresh and natural go into the expansion only for reviewers to recommend playing the normal campaign in its entirety first.

Also, it is a very clear DIALOGUE moment where you need to make a branching choice. I will say that I was surprised about how much iconic weapons and cyberware you get as part of PL. Enough to change your approach messin' about in the open world.

I'm trying to 100% all previous material before approaching the new material. Had the "most common ending" on my previous playthroughs because who doesn't want a chance at robbing a Casino in Low Earth Orbit? Now it's time to try for the "secret" ending.

I'm loving it so far. I'm still at the beginning, and my only complaint so far is how my V is so cordial with songbird. I wanted to be confrontational like bitch you invade my mind and mute my boy johnny, but my v is friendly and even flirty. She cracked a joke like, "you get to work with me, " and my v says, "there is that." Like what? lol. The other thing was how worried my v sounded about songbird, but that can be chalked up to the fact that she can potentially help us

I’m absolutely LOVING the main game right now. It took me like 18 attempts to really fall in love with it, but I’m absolutely floored by it. I’ll take your advice and start PL just before Nocturne.

Got it. Thanks. Makes sense about the play order.

Not gonna lie, CDPR made this extremely confusing as hell for those of us who have no beaten the game yet. The main take away I'm getting from this video, comments, and reddit threads, is once you reach the mission "Nocturne Op55N1", do NOT go and meet Hanako. Instead, save that for after you finish Phantom Liberty. Begin the Dog eat Dog quest. Which should trigger for you once you complete the Voodoo Boys quest "Transmission".

Man wtf literally every other outlet says you should weave phantom liberty gradually into the main story after the pacifica quest. Rather then play it as an epilogue but no Paul tassi says the opposite 🤦‍♂️.. so which is it?

Because I'm so desperate for the new story, I'm jumping into Phantom Liberty on my 100% save. Then planning on rolling back a fresh character to play through the main campaign with the 2.0 update.

My plan was to pick up my save sitting outside Embers as that save has every mission and achievement done. Every weapon and car etc etc. And start Phantom Liberty from there. I really don't want it start over another 120 hours as I have too many games backlogged I'd like to get to. So I it sounds like this is a good choice to make.

If you leave Phantom Liberty until the End then you will not get much use or there would be NO point finding the new weapons and outfits , why because by that time you get or find these items there will be basically nothing left to do in the game at all. Don’t know why CDPR locks the new outfits and clothing behind Phantom Liberty. Plus I found starting at Phantom Liberty you get to avoid the annoyingly aggressive story line of Takemura, who basically pesters you through out the whole game to help him and thus rushing you to meet Hanako at Embers. Then you have the annoying quest marker constantly appearing on your map and changing your mission objectives, which you then have to constantly turn off.

as a veteran player i did the 1st mission of phantom liberty around level 30 just to unlock everything and i can get back to the dlc whenever i see fit but have access to dogtown, new cyberware, gunshops…you loose nothing and get more content for the base game missions. just have to figure out how to get the new tech sniper and have most content to do with it. such a shame you cant get that thing earlier.

I think they are making the difference between DLC and Extension clear so that when they do come out with more DLC, people aren't expecting a huge expansion

I started all over did almost all the side quests. Got to the point of where you leave the president. Stole the car for captain and started the main missions got a few more side quests that are going to pop up and then I’ll go do phantom liberty! I’ve already put 60 hours into this new game and barely touched phantom liberty! I’m stoked!!

I went to dogtown around level 25 and was jumping in and out continuously doing little bits of PL and Judy/panam questlines as they showed up. Barely touched the MQ other than rushing the pacifika bit to access PL. With a solid build you should be fine even at lower levels. It also gives you access to relic levels and carjacking for el capitan, plus some crazy good iconic stuff, so in my opinion the sooner you enter the better. Then you can do a few gigs there and see if you're up for the task or not.

I absolutely cannot stand that I spent as much time as I did playing through the game for my third time first experience with phantom liberty and I made the choices that led to a permanent end. Nothing to do after no continuing my build and finishing other gigs etc. I’m currently actually really upset and disappointed about this.

I'm not sure why watching the different endings on RU-vid after you've completed the game is super lame compared to save scumming your way through all of them. It's perfectly valid to just you know just play through the game and get an ending.

I realized today that the actual storyline of main quests is very short...like right after the parade its time to meet hanako at embers

I finished the game on 1.0 and loved it. 1.6 came out and I played it again, and finished it, trying to do things differently, and wow what an experience. 2.0 is out and I am playing it, and I am going for quick hacks only, and man, its just a game that keeps on giving just like witcher 3 and skyrim. The best part of cyberpunk is its not a very long game. It took me over 80 hours to finish Witcher 3 and I skipped SO MUCH CONTENT. It took me like 100 hours to finally put down Skyrim. But I beat cyberpunk with almost 75% completion the first time in juts 22.5 hours. I finished it in 35 hours the second time around with 85%+ completion. Its very easy to do another run.

It take me 80 hs to reach the point i can play pl 😂😂😂😂. Sometimes i just star to drive and drive listening the music , just doing criminal activities. This game is sooo good

Well I started the DLC first mission. Then ran away as soon as you get the relic power. Nice turn of events and not sure if it changes the story that much.

Paul, you're great. You are a quintessential gamer.

I want to know, can I start a new game in Cyberpunk 2077 and then buy the DLC later - and play Phantom Liberty in the same save? Or do I need to have it at the start? (I just want to wait on it since I can’t afford it right now.)

This guy have no idea about that game, best time is when you got "Meet Hanako" quest, it's no return quest and when you get there you know everything to understand phantom liberty

PL is best enjoyed after the main campaign IMO

I got to the end credits from this dlc expecting that it did same as base game and that you could carry on just before the final mission but unfortunately it doesn't whitch is a shame so save regularly

i thought the expansion takes places halfway through the story? didn't CDPR say that?

Yes, this is an actual proper expansion and not some DLC that adds a bit of content.

Does starting phantom liberty mess with the side quest at all?

That was one of the most incredible animated intros I've ever seen! I laughed, I cried.. truly a whirlwind of emotions.

You are right - I don't see why people would like to go straight to Phantom Liberty lol Anyone who is an absolutely new player would enjoy playing the main story. Those who played it already may just use the save from the past and use the respec offered by the game. Anyhow, I feel that the best way of doing it is replaying the game from the get go - so many things were changed. I am 25 hours or so into my new rerun and it's amazing!

You just spent ten minutes with only a vague reason, buh bye

I’m afraid to check my end game save before the first major overhaul update, so can’t imagine it now. I started new character wit 2.0 so this video was what I was looking for, thank you!

great into by the way 😎

I made a new character and tried to streamline myself to dlc. I cant beat the voodoo boys mission since the cyberfreak before meeting agent takes no damage no matter what I do. I wonder what level I should try again?

Can you use relics if you don't touch the dlc though? If you do that last it makes the new powers kinda pointless?

2:03 you skip all the early missions when skipping to dlc. I decided just to start over but unfortunately I haven’t gotten to dlc content yet. Super close though. Just did automatic love. Also there is an additional ending that opens up from the DLC so keep that in mind. Point of no return was a good point to run through DLC although since I’ve already played through the game before I’m play it through when I get to Pacifica.

Could I just start the PL campaign earlier but wait to play through it? What about all the weapons clothes cyberware and gear? I'd like to use it as early as possible

Sick intro broski

I tried playing the dlc right from the get go and your are at L15, that is not enuf leveling for me. I agree w/you as it is better to play as much as the regulater game going into the dlc at or around Level 30-40. On a new play-thru from the regular start I am about to do the vodoo boys quests, at Level 22. Getting to the end of the first sequence at L15, I was unable to slide using croching under the partial open garage-slider as the president had already out ran me to get there and thru. My problem was I was unable to run fast the usual way pressing shift while running...it didn't work. So the spider was right on my tail and prevented me from getting under and I get stomped w/pres yelling NO. I google how to slide in cp2077 and there is NO functing way for PC as the game itself doesn't list it in controls? The new skill trees say you can slide and shoot. But no sliding meck? One posting said the sliding on consoles only works 1/10 times? Is there a command to slide for PC or how to get past the blockage and there is also no command to escape from the stomping by the garage door. The door next to it, I do not even know if it can be opened as the spider is right on you instantly. Really lame that this part of the open sequence to the dlc doesn't work? Flash-back to lousy start of game bugged disaster? Did these dev even do a play thru to see if the game works like they think it does? Watch the latest Asmond review of FO dev talking about what is wrong w/gaming today?

Other than bloodborne and dark souls 3, this is the only game I’ve played that I enjoy starting a new game from the ground up. Played 3 characters. Now that I have PL as of this morning I’ve been working on my new character. My female corpo netrunner techie with Judy romance that I will be going into the expansion in. But I did remake my original character all over again to also go into the expansion with. Male street kid pistol shotgun build panaam romance. So I’m really excited to see how the life paths affect phantom liberty with dialogue choices and such on dynamics.

Hi. I have a question, can u please answer me and help me? I already finish Cyberpunk 2077 more than 40 times until Phantom Liberty dlc was launch'd, what I ask u is if i complete everythin in Night City and last will be that one at Embers where I meet Hanako, can I go to Dogtown after that meeting? Wonder.

im in a weird place i know the story like the back of my hand but i dont wanna play on an old save guess im just gonna replay the base story for the 10th time

Your advice is bad and you should feel bad.

Isn’t it better to do the main story and dlc simultaneously till the the end??

Totally disagree with doing it all at the ends, would feel disjointed and out of place, at the end of the main story you're supposed to be at death's door, yet phantom liberty takes places over quite a long period of time, week minimum, I started it as soon as it became available, enjoyed the extra content it introduces, items, guns, cars etc, but took it easy, did one PL mission, a few gigs, side quests in between, then one main, felt much more cohesive, since in both PL and the main quest delve into the sake topics, trust, relationships, mortality, during both you get t know johnny better, so yeah I think it's better to mix it all together at a good pace, never rushing both storylines

The only problem I have with waiting till the end, is that you find out there is like 24 hours before the plane crashes, which is why Songbird was trying to contact you in Pacifica. Doing it at the end basically destroys the whole premise. I wish I knew this as I followed the advice to wait. I think it might have been better, in retrospect, to start the quest right away, then continue the rest of the game before finishing off PL. I really wish the devs didnt put these "timed" narrative events in the game which the character cannot necessarily follow, as it just ruins the immersion. They should have left the timing vague.

Finally got around to getting this recently. I played the original game when it first came out. So I’m doing a whole new play through with PL. It is good but it seems so out of place when you play it in the middle of the base game storyline. That’s really my only complaint about it. It just seems out of place some how. I would say waiting until near the end is the best time to play it.

Hy there! As a new player what you recommend to do first? should I start the base story or to skip to Phantom liberty? I just downloaded the game today so I dont know what to do :)) thanks a lot!

Is the undercover mission you're talking about a base game or phantom liberty misson? Ive completed the base game before but can't recall what mission you're mentioning.

Instead of describing the mission, you could've just say the mission name. That way you spoil waay less 🤦🤦

I have over 1000 hours in the game and as the mission to save Sandra was bugged, I had no other choice than to begin with PL, I've finished what I wanted to do and then started a new play through. I really like what they did with the game.

Can you leave dogtown once you enter? and once songbird updates your relic can you dip in and out ??

I started the phantom liberty dlc on accident 😂😂 i just went to dogtown killed all of them then a cutscene started i didn't know it was the dlc mission is it okey if i started the dlc before finishing the main campaign ?

Its kinda funny how in the mission "Lucretia my reflection" you can straight up just not do the dlc

It's unplayable on the ps5 because there's a save corrupting bug which has been destroying everyone's save files.

Haven’t played the game in over a year since I put in the full 80 hours for my first play through. Anyone have any recommendations? I’m a little apprehensive to start a new character and invest time I’m not sure I have

Do you have to play Dog Eat Dog as soon as you get the call from Songbird? I saw a video where if you go along with the mission, you’ll automatically fail with a cutscene of Space Force One crashing.

Guys i'm at hanako meeting in her place should i play the DLC before i talk to her or after ?

Im player phantom libert dlc but i never finished cyber punk can i go back and finish? I cant find a way

lol I was like Paul Tassi… isn’t that the destiny guy? And then the bumper hit and I was like oh…

I am wondering if the johny relationship influences Panton libery and or the end game content I have been playing through the main quest close to act 3 only have a few gigs and maybe two questsa left and Iam thinking of redoing th ewhole thing becsaue the ychanged my mono woire so much and I eithe ram gpinmg tototally reset everything or just start new .

So it is slightly annoying that the endings of Phantom Liberty have no impact on the main campaign as the endings make no sense between the two.

10 minutes video? Come on guys I just want a straight answer. Summarize in 12 words.

I've played through the game many times, so I didn't play a lot of the game before plunging into Phantom. Now I don't want to play the main game, much as I know I'd enjoy it. I'd recommend doing a bunch of gigs in the main game, and play through the Evelyn quest, the Panam quests, the Takemura jobs and the search for Smasher with Rogue and the oilfield scene, in approximately that order. In any case, do the Voodoo Boys/Pacifica quests _last_ because it triggers the Phantom Liberty content, and like me, you probably won't want to wait.

So as soon as I get the call from songbird, if I don’t go to the dog town gate I won’t get locked out and fail the mission?

New Cyberpunk buries Starfield.

I say when you get to the Point of Dress up with a Brother & Sister Hard Save at that point. Because your at a point where there pathways and make 2 saves after that. But yes I agree play the whole Game first & then the DLC. Yes I really could care less what CD Projekt Red calls it Frankly they could of easy made this in Unreal Engine instead of waiting. Like Standalone mini Exps.

If we’re doing a replay of the game, are there any side quests you recommend doing prior to starting the expansion? I already did almost all the side quests on my first play through, and would prefer to skip those this time if it doesn’t affect the expansion much.