Should You Beat Cyberpunk 2077 Before Starting Phantom Liberty? – Answered

With the new Phantom Liberty DLC now available for Cyberpunk 2077, there are a lot of questions you likely have. Can you romance any new characters? How much cool stuff is in Dogtown? Is Johnny still Johnny? While all of those questions have varying answers, one question on many people’s minds has to do with the base game’s ending. Here’s whether you should beat Cyberpunk 2077 before starting the Phantom Liberty expansion.

Should You Finish Cyberpunk 2077 Before Beginning Phantom Liberty?

To get one question out of the way, you don’t need to finish Cyberpunk 2077 to play through Phantom Liberty. The DLC becomes available as soon as you’ve dealt with the Voodoo Boys in Pacifica during Act 2 of the game. During this time, you’ll get a call that unlocks the quest Dog Eat Dog, the opening quest for Phantom Liberty.

As for whether you should finish Cyberpunk 2077 first, though, that’s a whole other topic. While I won’t spoil it, you can actually unlock a different ending for the base game by meeting certain conditions in the DLC. It’s because of this that I suggest you play through Phantom Liberty prior to doing the point-of-no-return quest Nocturne OP55N1. It’s also important to note that you can’t access the DLC after the point-of-no-return, so you may as well handle it beforehand. Either that, or you’ll have to finish the game and go back to a previous save.

Even if you don’t end up meeting the requirements for that extra ending, I’d still suggest finishing Phantom Liberty beforehand. It adds a lot to the end of the game, with all the turmoil V experienced beforehand and everything they’ve been through. I didn’t do this, seeing as I finished the base game years ago, but it’s well worth it.

If you’re looking for more help before starting the DLC, check out our guide on how long Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty takes to beat.