Cyberpunk 2077: How to start the Phantom Liberty DLC

Cyberpunk 2077's first piece of story DLC has arrived, alongside a 2.0 update overhauling many of the systems in the base game. For players who've already spent some significant time in Night City — and maybe even reached one or more of the game's multiple endings — it's a perfect opportunity to start again from the beginning and see what's new, as well as maybe check out what happens if you make some different choices along the way.

However, you might instead want to dive right into the new Phantom Liberty storyline; or pick up an old unfinished save and resume your adventure where you left off, tackling Phantom Liberty when it arises naturally as part of the wider story.

No matter how you're approaching your first play through of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, we're here to help you get started — literally. In this guide, we'll go through all the ways you can access the new DLC content, ensuring that you can start the new questline how and when it suits you best to do so.

Starting CP2077 Phantom Liberty in a new save

After installing the Phantom Liberty DLC, there'll be a slight change to the "New Game" option on Cyberpunk 2077's main menu.

Now, when you select "New Game", you'll be taken to a sub-menu giving you a choice of two starting points to select from:

• Regular Start: Starts you from the beginning of the base game.
• Skip ahead to Phantom Liberty: Allows you to skip directly to the start of the Phantom Liberty storyline, with all base game content unlocked.

The former option is recommended by CDPR — especially if you're brand-new to Cyberpunk 2077, for obvious reasons. But if you know the base story of CP2077 inside-out by now and are just keen to play the new questline in a fresh save, then skipping ahead is a perfectly viable option.

If you elect to skip, you'll go through character creation as normal, but will then begin at Level 15 and with your Attribute points randomly allocated (although you'll have the usual option to respec later). You'll land at a point in the mid-game right after the prelude quest at the start of Act 2, and will immediately receive a phone call kicking off the "Dog Eat Dog" quest that begins the Phantom Liberty storyline.

Starting CP2077 Phantom Liberty in an existing save

CDPR recommends starting a fresh save once you've got V2.0, but you can play the Phantom Liberty DLC from an existing save if you so choose.

Phantom Liberty content kicks in after you finish the initial mission of Act 2, "Playing For Time". Once the game opens up into Act 2 proper, four different storylines begin to run concurrently in the base game; simply put, the DLC adds a fifth, allowing you to build up a relationship with a new faction.

While we haven't had a chance to test every possibility yet, it seems as though you can play Phantom Liberty in an existing save so long as you haven't yet reached the end of Act 2. While we don't know for sure exactly where the cut-off is, it seems like the point of no return at the start of Act 3 is a logical place.

Phantom Liberty adds a new possible ending to V's overall story, so it makes sense that the point where you pick your endgame path is the hard line for access to the DLC. Anytime before that, though, you should be able to jump in using an existing save.