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How to start Phantom Liberty in Cyberpunk 2077Here’s how to start Phantom Liberty with an existing character or a new save

Here’s how to start Phantom Liberty with an existing character or a new save

Image credit:CD Projekt RED

Image credit:CD Projekt RED

A close-up of Songbird’s face in the Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty cinematic trailer.

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 tohow and when to start Phantom Liberty in Cyberpunk 2077.

In this guide:

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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.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/CD Projekt RED

The new game screen in Cyberpunk 2077, where you choose between regular start and skipping ahead to Phantom Liberty.

When does Phantom Liberty start?

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.

Image credit:CD Projekt RED

Songbird sits on an airplane seat and speaks to a character off-screen in the Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty cinematic trailer.

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 ourCyberpunk 2077 main story questslist.

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.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/CD Projekt RED

Judy leans over the player as they sit down in a Braindance studio in Cyberpunk 2077.

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 isbetween the “Transmission” quest and the “Nocturne Op55N1” questwhich 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 differentCyberpunk 2077 Lifepaths,how to make money fast, and the variousCyberpunk 2077 romance options.