Cyberpunk 2077: How to Start Phantom Liberty with an Existing Character

As much as I think you should start a new playthrough to experience Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, it’s incredibly easy to start a new game on an existing character. There are a few hitches to deal with if you modded the game, and depending on how far you are in the main game’s story, you may need to play at least a few hours to unlock access to the expansion. We’ll go over everything you need to know about how to start Phantom Liberty with an existing character in this guide.

How to Start Cyberpunk: 2077 Phantom Liberty on an Existing Save

As we noted in our guide on how to start Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, the only trigger for getting into the new content is completing the Voodoo Boys portion of the base game’s main story quest. The last thing you’ll do is meet with Alt Cunningham, work out the details of V’s “salvation,” then leave the gang’s church. Siding with or betraying the Voodoo Boys has no bearing on unlocking getting into Phantom Liberty.

As soon as you leave the church in Pacifica following the Transmission quest, Songbird will contact you, and you can head to the entrance to Dogtown to start the expansion. However, there are three incredibly important steps you need to take before you do so if you play on PC, and one on consoles.

• Remove any remaining mods from the game if you’re playing on PC. Odds are you aren’t playing with mods, considering all the changes that the 2.0 update brought to Cyberpunk. However, Phantom Liberty was built without taking into account the older hardware the base game was designed for, and as such is more demanding of your computer. With all the added assets, there’s no telling what a stray mod file or line of code might do to make Dogtown an even less hospitable place.
• Update your graphics drivers if you’re on PC. Updating your drivers is always the first step toward solving graphics-related issues, and this is especially true for Cyberpunk 2077. If you’re on an Nvidia RTX card, you’ll have access to Ray Reconstruction while in the Ray Tracing Overdrive mode, and without the new drivers, I can’t guarantee things will go all well with them installed.
• Backup your save files no matter where you play. Mods or no mods, massive updates like patch 2.0 have a small but non-zero chance of messing with your saves. If you backup the ones you have before you launch the game, you might be able to salvage them later on after Cyberpunk 2077 receives an update addressing any rare issues.

Don’t worry about missing out on any Iconic items from the base game, as you can buy them directly shortly after starting Phantom Liberty. And because the expansion mostly exists separate from the main game, you can always leave for hours to do regular story and side content whenever you wish.

That’s everything you need to know about how to start Phantom Liberty with an existing character. For more on Cyberpunk 2077 and the massive Phantom Liberty expansion, check out our guides on all the new weapons in 2.0, the Roads to Redemption quest, and more in our guides hub.