Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion has its own self-contained conclusion, but depending on your choices throughout the story, you can unlock an entirely new ending for the base game, too. You just have to make certain choices to get it.
If you’re worried about missing the ending but don’t want to outright spoil the story trying to unlock it, good news: We’re going to tell you which dialogue choices to make without getting too into concrete details about what’s going on in Phantom Liberty. We’ll show images of critical points and attempt to vaguely describe any decisions you have to make, but won’t describe the story itself. If that arrangement sounds good and you want some guidance on reaching Cyberpunk 2077’s new conclusion, read on.
Phantom Liberty has a major diverging point in the quest Firestarter. Your decision here will put you on one of two routes that are drastically distinct from one another and reveal different things about its new characters. You can still access Cyberpunk 2077’s new ending from either of these routes, but you will have to make certain decisions within them to reach it. Once you see one route through to the end, it’s really worth loading up an old save to start a fresh run to try the other, too, as this will give you the greatest understanding of Phantom Liberty’s story.
All that being said, the branching point is well-signposted, and you’ll know it’s coming before you get there. The decision that puts you on one Phantom Liberty route or another happens in this scene:
Here, you’ll get two dialogue options that each correspond to one of two actions. Either route can unlock the new ending, but depending on your subsequent choices, you might lose out on that ending entirely. And hey, maybe there’s some good role-playing material to work with by not pursuing it. But assuming you want to at least see the ending and decide if you want to keep it as your canon conclusion, read on for what you have to do in each route.
To keep things as spoiler-free as we can, we’ll just label each route by V’s dialogue option as opposed to the actual action that takes place.
“One more second…”
This route is much more straightforward in how to unlock the new ending. Without divulging specifics, the only thing you have to do in this route to unlock the new ending is ensure that Songbird lives. There’s a specific decision point near the end of this route that will determine the netrunner’s fate, and as long as she survives, you will be able to see the new ending.
“I’m with you.”
Conversely, it’s a bit trickier to unlock the new ending in this route, and it’s especially difficult to explain how to unlock it without spoilers. But if you go with this decision, you’ll have to play through the expansion’s final quest and essentially turn heel at the very end. Idris Elba’s character Solomon Reed will engage you in conversation after a climactic battle, and you have to agree to a deal he proposes.
Both these routes, regardless of the decisions you make within them, will bring you to Phantom Liberty’s credits sequence, after which you’ll be put back into the open world. But if you made the specific decisions within either route that unlock the new conclusion, wait for Reed to contact you, meet up with him, then follow the quest objectives to see the new ending. This means if you follow either of these paths, you will end your Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough with the new ending. That also means you’re reaching a point of no return and the game’s final credits will roll.
If you don’t make the Phantom Liberty choices that unlock the new ending, you’ll be put back onto the base game’s main path and will have to follow it through to one of the original endings.
What happens if I unlock Phantom Liberty’s new ending before finishing Cyberpunk 2077?
Phantom Liberty’s new ending is different from the other endings in Cyberpunk 2077, as it will essentially wipe the rest of the game off the table so you can see its new conclusion. This is part of why I recommend finishing Cyberpunk 2077 with one of its original endings before seeing Phantom Liberty’s, because taking the new Phantom Liberty ending will end your playthrough before you’ve experienced large swaths of the main game. Plus, the new ending is much more centered on the expansion’s characters than it is the bulk of 2077’s cast, so it definitely has a weird place in the continuity.
If you do play through Phantom Liberty before finishing Cyberpunk 2077, especially the companion quests (Kerry, Judy, Panam, River), you will miss out on some character beats in the new finale. Thus I also recommend at least seeing their storylines through before you head into Phantom Liberty’s finale.
For more on Phantom Liberty, check out Kotaku’s review.
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