When should you start Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty DLC?

Cyberpunk 2077 has already swept through the gaming world with its newest DLC, Phantom Liberty. The new story missions have injected a ton of depth into the game, but with so much content at their fingertips, players need help figuring out where to start this new adventure within their playthroughs.

Phantom Liberty will not activate until V reaches a certain point in the main story, meaning players must make an important choice deciding when to complete all of the events of the DLC content within the context of the entire Cyberpunk storyline.

How to start the Phantom Liberty DLC

Players can start the Phantom Liberty DLC in a few ways. One allows you to start fresh, while others enable you to continue from your saved character. Players can choose to create a new V and skip ahead to the Phantom Liberty Arc.

Additionally, players can retain their current build and complete the Transmission main quest. Another way is to load a save with a completed main Transmission quest. These saves will have a label that reads, “point of no return.”

Best time to start Phantom Liberty DLC

Suppose you’re a seasoned Night City veteran who has already played through the entirety of the Cyberpunk 2077 main story and is familiar with the game’s various endings. In that case, you can activate and finish Phantom Liberty‘s story once it is available. IT will not activate until the main story mission titled Transmission is complete, which is set relatively far into the game’s second act.

If you haven’t finished the full story of the base game, however, I’d recommend finishing all the main missions up to the game’s point of no return, marked by the quest titled “Nocturne Op55N1.” This is because the Phantom Liberty DLC has its own possible endings, and if these are activated, you will not be able to return and complete the other missions from the base game.

From an immersion standpoint, starting the Phantom Liberty storyline much later into the base game makes more sense since V will have built up a greater reputation in the city through the various endeavors he has endured.

Starting Phantom Liberty with a new character

For players looking to build a new character but want to avoid burning through hours of base game content, Cyberpunk 2077 has provided an easy solution. Starting a new game with the DLC downloaded will activate a new screen prompt, letting you skip ahead in the story to the point when the Phantom Liberty questline is activated.

This option will provide you with a basic character at Level 15, with a decent collection of weapons at your disposal alongside automatically allocated attribute points and abilities. You will be able to respec your character once you jump into the game so that you can play the story out with the build you choose.

Starting Phantom Liberty with an old save

If you want to play the new DLC with your old V build, you’ll have to find a save file between the Transmission quest and the point of no-return quest, Nocturne Op55N1. Once you load in, you’ll have to wait around for a bit until you receive a phone call from a new character named Songbird, which marks the start of the storyline.