How to start Phantom Liberty in Cyberpunk 2077
Here's how to start Phantom Liberty with an existing character or a new save
How do you start Phantom Liberty in Cyberpunk 2077? Whether you're a returning Cyberpunk 2077 brought back by the promise of a brand new storyline and sweeping system changes, or this is your first time dipping into the overwhelmingly gorgeous world of Night City, you'll be wanting to know how to start playing the new Phantom Liberty expansion.
There are actually several ways to start playing Phantom Liberty depending on whether you want to play through from the beginning, start the expansion from an old character save, or start a new game that automatically skips ahead to when the new storyline begins. We'll go over each of these options below, along with some important advice when it comes to how and when to start Phantom Liberty in Cyberpunk 2077.
In this guide:
- How to start Phantom Liberty
- When does Phantom Liberty start?
- Best time to start Phantom Liberty
- How to start Phantom Liberty with an old save
How to start Phantom Liberty
The fastest way to start Phantom Liberty is to select "New Game" from the main menu, then click "Skip Ahead To Phantom Liberty". This will begin a new game that skips the story ahead to the point where the Phantom Liberty story begins. You will need to have both Phantom Liberty and the 2.0 patch installed for this to be an option.
By choosing to skip ahead, you'll be given the opportunity to play as a pre-made character at Level 15. You start with a modest selection of different weapons, attributes, and abilities, which you'll be able to customise and respec at will once you're back in the open world of Night City. You'll begin the game reading a book, and within seconds you'll be interrupted by a phone call from a mysterious caller which begins the first Phantom Liberty mission, "Dog Eat Dog".
When does Phantom Liberty start?
If you want to do a full playthrough of both Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty, then you'll need to choose "New Game" followed by "Regular Start". The Phantom Liberty story will begin just after you complete the main story mission "Transmission".
The "Transmission" mission is the mission where you finish up your dealings with the Voodoo Boys. Right after you cross the Blackwall and talk to Johnny, you'll receive the phone call beginning the Phantom Liberty DLC.
Note: "Transmission" takes place late on in Act 2 of Cyberpunk 2077's main story, so it may take you approximately 20 hours to start Phantom Liberty via the Regular Start. To get a full idea of how long it will take you to start playing Phantom Liberty, check out our Cyberpunk 2077 main story quests list.
Best time to start Phantom Liberty
To get the best possible experience of both Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty's stories, you may wish to hold off on starting that first "Dog Eat Dog" mission in Phantom Liberty until you've reached the point of no return. This is because the Phantom Liberty storyline comes with its own possible endings, and if you trigger one of these endings, then you won't be able to go back and complete any of the other main missions you'd left uncompleted from the base game.
So from an immersion perspective, the best time to start Phantom Liberty is once you've reached the main quest "Nocturne Op55N1", which marks Cyberpunk 2077's point of no return before the ending.
How to start Phantom Liberty with an old save
The final option if you want to start Phantom Liberty is to play using an existing character save. To do this, simply load a previous save file which is between the "Transmission" quest and the "Nocturne Op55N1" quest which marks Cyberpunk 2077's point of no return before the ending.
It may take a little while, but you will always end up getting a call out of the blue from the aforementioned mysterious caller, prompting the start of the Phantom Liberty storyline for your existing character save. However, you always need to have the "Transmission" quest finished before the "Dog Eat Dog" quest begins, so if your old character save is from earlier in the game, you'll need to just keep playing through the main story until you finish the main mission "Transmission".
That's all you need to know in order to start playing Phantom Liberty, the new Cyberpunk 2077 expansion! If you need a refresher on the base game and all the possibilities available to you, check out our guides on the different Cyberpunk 2077 Lifepaths, how to make money fast, and the various Cyberpunk 2077 romance options.