How to beat the Chimera in Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty

The Chimera 0005-C M—known simply as the Chimera—is the first major boss battle you encounter in the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk 2077.

Songbird initially hacks into the Chimera to help you in a firefight, but things don’t end well as Songbird seems to lose control of the situation, freaking out and disappearing from the comms. Something weird is going down, but it doesn’t stop there. After some cool but sinister-looking red glitching, the Chimera turns on you and President Meyers (whom you are helping get to safety after a plane crash). 

You end up engaging in an epic chase sequence as the Chimera ruthlessly pursues you and Meyers through the underground depths of Dogtown. You eventually get to an elevator and while Meyers gets inside, you are thrown backward as both you and the Chimera plummet even further down into the bowels of Dogtown. 

Meyers wakes you up, and it appears that everything is done and dusted, but the Chimera is far from done with you. Crippled from its fall, the robot is far less mobile than before. However, it is still very much out for your blood. With it’s movement limited, now is your chance to hit this robotic menace where it hurts. 

How difficult is the Chimera boss battle in Phantom Liberty?

If you started Phantom Liberty with an existing V, this will be far from the first boss-level fight you will have encountered in Cyberpunk 2077.

However, if you started a new game and chose to skip to the DLC, it will be your first big bad fight. Because of this potential difference in player experience, the Chimera isn’t too taxing in terms of difficulty, especially if you are playing on a difficulty level below Hard.

That being said, make sure you have plenty of health boosters and some powerful weapons equipped before you start the fight. Dodging the Chimera’s attacks might be relatively simple, but when it does manage to hit you, you are going to feel it, so you need to be prepared. 

How to beat the Chimera in Phantom Liberty

The Chimera has multiple weak spots. These are highlighted in orange and are the points you need to target. If you have a particularly good smart weapon to hand, it’s easy to hit the robo-beast thanks to the automatic targeting functions these weapons have. 

The limbs of the Chimera are also weak points that are easy to pinpoint, especially with a smart weapon. A top tip here is to aim for the joints of the limbs that connect them to the main body of the robot, as you rack up more damage points on the robot if you do. 

Stage one: Dodging the homing missiles

The first set of attacks the Chimera throws at you is a homing missile/mortar projectiles of sorts. You start to see red circles in areas near to where you are standing, showing that the bot is aiming for you and is about to shoot you to hell and back. You have a few moments to dodge out of the way of the red circles, but the radius of the missiles once they strike is quite wide so stay vigilant to get out of the way as quickly as you can.

Stage two: Dodging the lasers

The next attack that gets thrown your way is a menacing-looking red laser. The Chimera powers up its laser and then sweeps the area in a semi-circle. These lasers switch from being aimed lower—close to the ground—and then higher, level with your head height. You need to switch between two types of dodging: jumping over the lasers and ducking underneath them.

In my experience in this boss fight, the Chimera was randomly switching between these two laser heights, so I had to watch carefully to react accordingly when the laser started coming my way.

I was surprised by how little damage the lasers actually did when they hit me, as I was expecting them to be a one-hit kill. They certainly look like they would be a one-hit kill. That being said, they still hurt you should you get your timing wrong. Make sure you don’t get complacent with the lasers. You will be feeling the burn pretty quickly if you do.

Stage three: Defeating the repair drones

So, you have managed to dodge the homing missiles and avoid getting disintegrated by the lasers while also getting in several good hits to the Chimera’s weak spots. Good job, but now comes the most infuriating part of any boss fight in every single video game ever: the self-repair stage. We all know that the player character needs to be able to heal themselves as much as possible during boss fights, but when the boss starts to self-heal, then it becomes a personal attack.

Gamers everywhere can tell you of the egregious offense we feel when the boss has the audacity to heal themselves, and unfortunately, this is something you have to deal with here.

A group of drones will enter the fight, some of which are repair drones that start to build the Chimera’s health back up. This part can be a little bit tricky, as you have to juggle the smaller drones attacking you relentlessly while the repair drones restore the Chimera. As much as you might be tempted to go straight for the repair drones, the little drones can pack a hell of a punch, so you might find yourself getting taken out if you opt for this method.

The tactic that worked for me was to target one repair drone, destroy it, and then take out a few of the attack drones before going after the next repair drone. By thinning the numbers of the smaller drones before bringing your focus back to the repair drones, you can give yourself a better chance of surviving the drone attack.

Stage four: Avoiding the poison gas

As if lasers, missiles, and drones weren’t enough, the Chimera also has another trick up its robot sleeve: poisonous gas. You will see that the gas—a green mist—starts to appear not long after you take out the drones and start attacking the Chimera again. I didn’t actually notice the gas at first, but thankfully President Meyers is a lot more observant than I am as she helpfully gave me a verbal warning to get away from it. 

You need to get to higher ground to avoid inhaling the deadly gas. There is a higher level within the fight area, which can be reached if you have cyberware upgrades in your legs that allow you to double jump. If you don’t have this upgrade, don’t worry, there are plenty of ways to get to the higher level. There is a set of stairs that you can go up, but there are also some areas where you can climb up. You need to get up there as soon as you can, though, as the gas will spread very quickly and drain your health just as fast. 

Stage five: Removing the Chimera’s core

From your new position on the upper level, keep shooting at the Chimera’s weak spots and avoiding its missiles and lasers. Once you have worn down its health bar to the point where it is almost empty, you receive a verbal prompt from Meyers to climb on the Chimera to finish the fight once and for all. When you receive this prompt, the Chimera will be downed and won’t attack. Climb onto it as soon as possible to avoid it making a comeback. I’m not sure if the Chimera does actually attack again if you don’t climb on top of it straight away, as I wasn’t about to risk it considering how long the fight was.

When standing atop the Chimera, look down, and you will see a hatch. A prompt appears telling you to “finish it.” Finishing it means ripping off the hatch and grabbing the Chimera’s core with your bare hands in a super badass moment. Unfortunately, this moment is slightly ruined by V’s choice of words: “Rust in piss.” I don’t know if this is a line that only the female V says, though, so male V players might be safe from this devastatingly, eye rollingly, cringeworthy dialogue moment. 

Taking the Chimera core (optional)

With the Chimera defeated, you then have the option as to whether you want to take the Chimera’s core with you.

I’m not sure if this will make a difference further on in the DLC as of yet, but I took it anyway as I am the kind of player who will feel incomplete if I don’t pick up each and every single thing that I come across in the game. If you want to take it, you can find it on the floor in front of where President Meyers is standing.