As such, Phantom Liberty often feels like a playground for the new and improved Cyberpunk’s best features. Its combat is intense, its world feels substantial, its narrative is exceptional, and it is even filled with the difficult decisions (both micro and macro) the base game sometimes lacked. It’s one of the biggest leaps in quality that an expansion has ever offered, though it’s certainly difficult to not be a little bitter when you think that the entire game could have been like this. 

24. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

The Delicious Last Course is certainly one of the shorter expansions on this list, but it’s hard to hold that fact or this DLC’s long development time against it when you consider just how much time it takes to properly render this game’s stunning animations. 

Along with being much more visually ambitious than the base Cuphead game (which is saying something), The Delicious Last Course is somehow even more challenging than the infamously difficult base Cuphead experience. Yet, it rarely (if ever) feels cheap. This game demands that you master every old Cuphead trick and a few new ones, but it rewards you for your patience and talent with some of the most exhilarating boss battles in recent gaming history. 

23. Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam

I’ve never been entirely sure why we’ve never gotten a truly great standalone Vietnam War video game when so many exceptional movies have covered that time in history from so many angles. While this DLC’s campaign certainly doesn’t offer the definitive Vietnam War video game experience I’m looking for, its multiplayer may just be the best in Battlefield history. 

Vietnam’s exceptional maps, incredible soundtrack, and general refinements to Bad Company 2’s already excellent multiplayer modes make it one of the most intense multiplayer FPS experiences of its era and arguably the gold standard for the entire Battlefield multiplayer concept. The vehicles, the squad roles, the surprisingly good XP system…nearly every element of this game’s multiplayer would still impress today if it was featured in a new release. 

22. Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches

Both Dishonored games benefit from exceptional DLC, but The Brigmore Witches stands tall as the series’ finest expansion.

Essentially the culmination of both the base game and the previous DLC’s continuing narrative, Brigmore Witches’ story obviously benefits from the groundwork laid before it. Yet, it’s this expansion’s gameplay that shines brightest. Brigmore’s more challenging enemies, advanced abilities, and all of the ways you can navigate its more open levels make it the closest this series has ever come to capturing the very best elements of the Thief franchise. 

21. Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep

While nobody expects the Borderlands franchise to take itself seriously, the entire concept of this DLC seemed a little…odd. A Borderlands expansion built around the idea that you’re playing a fictionalized version of D&D? Following a series of lackluster DLC releases, some worried that the team was just desperate to prolong the game’s success. 

Instead, this DLC proved to recontextualize so many of the things that made Borderlands special in the first place. With all the rules thrown out of the window, Tina Tina offered a refined version of the Borderlands experience that benefited from top-shelf Borderlands pop culture references and Tiny Tina’s questionable effectiveness as the game master. The eventual quality of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands only confirmed the strength of this concept. 

20. Half-Life: Opposing Force

While I’m also a fan of Half-Life’s Blue Shift expansion (which casts players in the role of a security guard during the Black Mesa incident), Opposing Force is a particularly exceptional extension of one of the best games ever. 

Built on the brilliant premise that you essentially play as one of the Marines assigned to eliminate Gordon Freeman in the base game, Opposing Force does a fantastic job of presenting familiar (and welcome) Half-Life elements in a new way while offering essential new experiences. Even some of the expansion’s ideas that don’t entirely work (like the sometimes wonky NPC companions you fight alongside early on) showcase the ambition of this expansion and developer Gearbox’s understanding of the genre. 

19. Destiny: The Taken King

While Destiny was certainly a commercial success from the moment it was released, even the game’s earliest and most adamant fans will likely admit that it didn’t quite live up to its full potential at launch. The Dark Below and House of Wolves expansions kept fans in the gameplay loop, but both essentially offered more Destiny rather than definitive proof that Bungie had any idea how to grow this game in the ways it needed to grow. 

Well, The Taken King certainly offered that proof. Its fantastic campaign showed that Bungie hadn’t forgotten how to tell a story, while its expanded Strikes and Raids tested the limits of even the best Destiny players’ builds, skills, and teamwork. Individual improvements and new additions aside, Taken King’s greatest gift to Destiny fans was showing that the game’s team was capable of crafting an adventure that felt like it could only work within their then-unique take on the genre.

18. Mass Effect 3: Citadel

I sometimes think that the discourse surrounding Mass Effect 3 was always a touch overblown. Yes, that game’s ending was a disaster, but that finale’s shortcomings have come to define what was otherwise a very good game. People wanted to love Mass Effect 3 just as they loved the rest of the franchise. It’s just that Mass Effect 3’s ending made the game kind of hard to love. 

As corny as this will sound, Citadel is all about love. It’s a love letter to the franchise and its fans delivered at a time when everyone needed it most. By allowing the Normandy crew to take some much-needed shore leave, Citadel also allowed players to spend time with those characters in more intimate scenarios that often still featured the series’ best writing and most adventurous creative elements. Nobody officially called it an “apology” ending, but it was certainly an appropriate one

17. Starcraft: Brood War

Truth be told, Brood War is one of the less impactful expansions on this list. Whereas some expansions practically redeemed their base games by making serious changes, Brood War’s contributions are comparatively modest. Instead, Brood War’s greatest challenge was finding a way to add new content to a strategy experience that was often praised for being perfectly balanced. 

Yet, Brood War somehow found a way to improve upon perceived perfection. Brood War’s new units, expanded environments, and brilliant difficulty tweaks (most notably, its improved enemy A.I.) forced players to consider new tactics without having to completely abandon what they learned and mastered before. Starcraft may be one of the greatest strategy games ever, but it’s hard to imagine playing it without Brood War installed

16. Prey: Mooncrash

Mooncrash is probably the most underrated expansion on this list, though that’s a pretty fitting legacy for the DLC expansion to a game that has long been tragically underrated. If for some reason you did give Prey a chance but never tried Mooncrash, then I beg you to give this DLC some love as well.

By randomizing its enemy positions, traps, and loot layouts every time you die, Mooncrash essentially turns Prey into a Roguelike experience. Players are even able to choose between multiple playable characters with their own strengths and weaknesses, and eventually upgrade them as they slowly progress. While Mooncrash makes a jarring transition from the base experience to say the very least, it ultimately builds its adventure on the common ground between Rougelikes and immersive sims. In a better world, Arkane would have been allowed to make a full game like Mooncrash. 

15. Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne

Another expansion for a Blizzard RTS? What can I say; Blizzard used to make some incredible expansions. It’s a point I’ll revisit a couple more times on this list. 

Actually, I worry that Warcraft 3’s reputation has been negatively altered by both that abysmal remaster and the ways that World of Warcraft has come to define the Warcraft legacy. Before all of that, though, Warcraft 3 really did raise the bar for RTS titles. Its mechanics weren’t necessarily the deepest, but the game’s stunningly deep story and rich visuals immediately separated Warcraft 3 from the competition and set up so many of the ideas that would later define the WoW mythos. 

Well, The Frozen Throne brilliantly continues that story by showcasing the uneasy alliance that has formed between those who oppose the Lich King as well as the mounting consequences of Arthas’ continuing conquest. It’s an epic faction-based fantasy narrative that clearly draws upon genre influences (as well as the previous games) but ultimately feels surprisingly unique to this experience. It’s also often told between some exceptional battles that are greatly enhanced by this expansion’s numerous subtle and sweeping improvements. 

14. Bloodborne: The Old Hunters

Anyone who knows FromSoftware’s works also knows that the studio loves to save the most difficult Soulsborne challenges for their DLC. Clearing a FromSoftware DLC release is a right of passage for even the most hardcore Soulsborne fans. Well, The Old Hunters may just be the studio’s crown jewel in terms of absurdly difficult expansions. 

Despite giving you a surprising amount of powerful new gear to play with, The Old Hunters is guaranteed to push Bloodborne players to their absolute limits. Like so many of FromSoftware’s best games, though, it’s Old Hunters’ execution of nearly everything it does that keeps it from being overwhelmingly frustrating. You’ll likely die a few times because you’re too busy admiring the stunning gothic world that the Old Hunters team has crafted. Your many subsequent deaths will be softened by the knowledge that you’re dying to some of the finest challenges ever crafted by the genre’s innovators. 

13  Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker

Ever since Final Fantasy 14 essentially rebooted itself with Realm Reborn, the game’s fans have been blessed with a series of high-quality expansions that represent the high points of the game’s much-needed change in direction. While any (or at least most) of those expansions could have made this list, Endwalker somehow raised a bar that people thought couldn’t go any higher. 

I won’t bore you with the wealth of content Endwalker offers and how it could have easily filled a lesser game. Instead, I think it’s enough to say that Endwalker somehow brought an emotional and satisfying end to the most ambitious MMORPG narrative ever crafted. It’s not quite the end of Final Fantasy 14, but it certainly feels like the culmination of this game’s achievements. 

12. Fallout: New Vegas – Old World Blues

While Fallout 3 and New Vegas’ DLC expansions weren’t always perfect (you know what you did, Courier’s Stash), those titles really do represent a brief golden age for ambitious DLC when creative expansions to established single-player titles were sometimes taken for granted. Yet, even when measured by some fairly high standards, Old World Blues stands apart. 

In Old World Blues, the player soon learns the legend of the Big MT: a research facility that once supposedly housed the world’s greatest scientists. What follows one of the most insane adventures in a franchise known for its insane adventures. It’d be a crime to ruin some of this DLC’s greatest moments, but it’s enough to know that Old World Blues is the funniest and best-written chapter in the entire New Vegas lineup. If you ever needed proof that Obsidian should have been handed the keys to the Fallout franchise, you’ll find plenty of it here. 

11. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Though the arguments over the best World of Warcraft expansion will likely never truly stop, it’s no surprise that Wrath of the Lich King regularly finds itself at, or near, the top of such lists. At the very least, Wrath of the Lich King led to the peak of WoW’s popularity, power, and cultural impact. For some, Wrath will always be associated with the MMORPG’s best days. 

Popularity aside, what actually made Wrath of the Lich King so special? Well, along with wrapping up some of the lingering narrative threads that began in Frozen Throne (and allowing players to explore the wonderful world of Northrend in the process), it offered a brilliant blend of requested improvements and creative new concepts. Previously ignored class archetypes got a little more love, Raids were more accessible (yet far more intricate), and numerous mechanics were made more accessible without losing that underlying sense of wonder. 

This has never been a perfect expansion. In many ways, though, it best represents the things that made WoW special. 

10. Baldur’s Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal

Throne of Bhaal is another expansion to a game that really had nothing left to prove. Then again, Baldur’s Gate 2 was the sequel to a game that seemingly left very little off the table. This was a time when BioWare was dedicated to raising the bar they had set, and they weren’t going to settle for less just because this was “only” an expansion. 

As a result, Throne of Bhaal forges its own legacy. Though technically much shorter than the base game, Throne of Bhaal throws a lot on the table for even veteran players to deal with. While that includes a variety of new abilities and possibilities, you’re going to need all of those tools if you’re bold enough to have any dreams of actually surviving this game’s daunting battles. While I know that some are actually turned off by this expansion’s combat-heavy nature, I’ve always found that to be the kind of welcome departure from previous conventions we look for in the best expansions. 

9. Civilization V: Brave New World

Honestly, there have been relatively few Civilization expansions over the years that have fallen short of greatness. However, Brave New World stands out for the ways it elevated an exceptional base experience while encouraging entirely new ways to approach that game. 

Along with the usual array of Civilization expansion additions (new scenarios, Wonders, units, etc.), Brave New World reimagines the base game’s ideological, social, and political systems. The result is a Civilization experience where victory not only comes in so many new forms but feels satisfying in ways that even classic Civilization conquest concepts do not.

Yet, despite introducing so many complex elements and new strategies, Brave New World does little to diminish the accessibility that gives Civilization that famous “one more turn” quality that keeps you playing long past the point when greater responsibilities should be demanding your attention. Nobody was really asking for sweeping improvements to the Civilization franchise, but Brave New World delivered them in ways that have proven to be hard to top. 

8. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

If this list was ranked solely on the basis of expansions that righted the wrongs of their base games, then Reaper of Souls would rank even higher than this. Along with the massive patch that preceded its release, Reaper of Souls addressed the many, many issues with Diablo 3 that fans just started to assume they would always have to live with. 

Defined by its darker tone and the ways that tone represented the series’ untarnished glory days, Reaper of Souls is less of a total overhaul of Diablo 3 and more of an exploration of the many ways that game could be improved by incorporating twists on old concepts that remained true to the series’ recent innovations. It wasn’t quite the “Diablo 2: 2” experience that some fans begged for, but it was a game that made a lot more people realize that Diablo 3 was really just a few improvements away from being something pretty special in its own right. 

7. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine

Honestly, feel kind of bad for not including Hearts of Stone on this list given that it’s an exceptional expansion that sometimes gets overlooked. It’s just that there are times when I just can’t believe that something like Blood and Wine exists. 

Few (if any) people walked away from The Witcher 3 thinking “That wasn’t enough game for me.” Yet, CD Projekt Red still delivered two exceptional expansions that felt worthy of being standalone games. While Blood and Wine is certainly noteworthy for giving Witcher 3 an impossibly brilliant series of endings that somehow all feel appropriate, it’s the quality of the game’s main quest that sticks with me all these years later. 

Despite its use of numerous horror-like concepts, Blood and Wine’s surprisingly playful (yet impactful) narrative feels like the ultimate flex of an all-time great RPG studio working at the top of its game. 

6. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

It’s sometimes bizarre to think of Blood Dragon as an “influential” experience, but that’s very much what this game is. At a time when studios were figuring out how to make the most out of the lucrative world of DLC, the Blood Dragon team came out and said “What if everyone just let themselves get real weird with it?”

It wasn’t the first expansion to attempt such a massive departure from its base game, but nobody had really seen anything quite like Blood Dragon up until that point. Its overwhelming (in a good way) B-movie references and neon visuals were perfectly complemented by an expertly implemented synth soundtrack. Blood Dragon contains so many absurd ideas, yet the game manages to combine them in a way that somehow makes all those concepts feel like they’ve always belonged together. 

Blood Dragon was the excuse that developers and gamers needed to lighten up a bit about the whole DLC thing and just have some fun.

5. BioShock 2: Minerva’s Den

Though I like BioShock 2 more than most, it’s hard to argue against the game’s black sheep status. Not only was it not developed by Irrational Games, but it actually cast you in the role of a Big Daddy. It always felt closer to a DLC than a proper sequel, and that “2” in the name really seemed to rub some the wrong way. 

While I accept that BioShock 2 will always be an oddity, it pains me to realize that the game’s outsider status means that the majority of BioShock fans have likely never experienced arguably the series’ finest hour: the Minerva’s Den DLC. Mind you, I’m nearly being literal there. You can beat this DLC in just a handful of hours. 

Despite its short runtime, Minerva’s Den features some of the best storytelling in any of the BioShock games. Built around a battle between great minds over the fate of a powerful supercomputer known as “The Thinker,” Minerva Den’s narrative raises and addresses some tough questions about whether there is really a truly “moral” use for advanced A.I. technology (sound familiar?). While all BioShock games raise such complex questions, it’s the ways that Minverva’s Den examines them through such a human lens (despite not starring a human) that makes it so special. It’s no wonder that some of the game’s principal creators went on to form The Fullbright Company and create games like Gone Home and Tacoma. 

4. Grand Theft Auto 4: The Ballad of Gay Tony

I love Grand Theft Auto 4, but like some other fans at the time of its release, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the game somehow felt smaller than San Andreas. While the game was, of course, technically larger, its more grounded nature meant that it sometimes lacked the absurd activities that San Andreas could utilize without any real explanation ever being needed. 

The Ballad of Gay Tony DLC brings back some of that classic GTA absurdity, and with it comes some of those little pleasures that it sometimes felt like GTA 4 lacked. Yes, that includes outlandish missions like stealing a subway car for a misguided kid trying to give his dad the ultimate present, but it extends lesser side activities like golfing, running a nightclub, and delivering drugs across town. Such things may not sound like much on their own, but they gave you those invaluable little things to do that were missing from the base GTA 4 experience.

More than anything, though, it is the ways that Ballad of Gay Tony incorporated those sillier elements into the GTA 4 experience without completely betraying that game’s more mature evolutions that make it a minor miracle. No matter how crazy things get, the people and events of Ballad of Gay Tony somehow feel like they belong in a world that is a bit closer to our own. 

3. The Last of Us: Left Behind

I went into Left Behind with some trepidation. Unnecessary DLC in video games was nothing new, but in the case of Left Behind, there was a very real chance that the events of the DLC could compromise or negatively alter a game that was widely acclaimed for its storytelling. 

Instead, Left Behind solidified The Last of Us‘ status as the greatest video game story ever told. Impeccably incorporated into the game’s main narrative, Left Behind staged one of the game’s greatest tragedies by also featuring some of its most notable triumphs. We know (or rightfully suspect) that Ellie and Riley’s joyful journey through an abandoned mall can’t end well. Yet, much like the girls themselves, our knowledge of the horrors that may come does little to diminish the pure joy of watching two true souls who need and deserve a victory enjoy a brief respite from the terrors that will otherwise shape much of their existence. 

It’s now impossible to imagine telling The Last of Us story without Left Behind. That chapter was even a highlight of the HBO series, and its intimate nature almost certainly inspired that series’ finest, and most original, episode. 

2. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Given Red Dead Revolver’s mixed reception, few expected Redemption to be anything greater than an old-west GTA spin-off. Of course, it proved to be so much more than that. Similarly, few fans expected Undead Nightmare to be little more than a cute, brief, zombie-filled “horde mode” released just in time for Halloween. What we got instead was a game that the talented team at Rockstar took very seriously despite its seemingly silly premise. 

Not satisfied with relying on the same old genre tropes, the Undead Nightmare team instead asked themselves what a horror movie version of Red Dead Redemption’s take on the Western genre might look like. The result was a game that somehow retained the spirit of RDR’s most impactful thematic ideas while translating those ideas into an entirely new genre. No matter how wild this expansion got (and it got real wild), everything felt like it fit into the acclaimed RDR universe. 

Of course, it didn’t hurt that battling waves of zombies with RDR’s excellent shooting and riding mechanics proved to be so much more fun than it had any right to be. In some ways, Undead Nightmare has become even more famous (or perhaps just beloved) than even RDR was. It’s a miracle that something like this was allowed to exist, and video game DLC was (briefly) better because of it. 

In the early days of video game DLC (or at least the digital age of the concept), Bethesda made the truly terrible decision to release the now-infamous “Horse Armor” add-on for Oblivion. For $2.50, Bethesda offered the…privilege of owning entirely cosmetic armor for your in-game horse. Mocked even in its time, the Horse Armor DLC has since gone on to define the laziest and greediest elements of a multibillion-dollar corner of the industry that more than a few people say has irreparably damaged the creative soul of gaming as an art form. You could say I wasn’t a fan. 

Bethesda didn’t stop there, though. They continued to release more, and gradually more substantial, DLC for Oblivion. The game’s run of DLC eventually culminated with the 2007 debut of Shivering Isles: the greatest DLC expansion in gaming history. 

While Shivering Isles wasn’t necessarily more substantial or ambitious than the biggest and best expansion packs that preceded it, it was an often stunning example of what DLC was truly capable of. Thrusting players into the Shivering Isles (which are ruled over by the always charming Prince of Madness, Sheogorath), this expansion allowed the Oblivion team to push their already impressive work to incredible new heights. The world was more colorful, the gear was more creative, and the quests…well, the quests are some of the best in RPG history. 

It is strange, yet strangely appropriate, that Oblivion offered the best and worst DLC in gaming history. To this day, though, Shivering Isles stands as proof that truly exceptional DLC can make even the greatest games greater than we ever dreamed.

This Castlevania article contains spoilers.

The vampire killers have essentially lost by the final scene of Castlevania: Nocturne. Richter, Annette, Tera, and Maria’s plan to destroy the Abbot’s Forgemaster machine has failed miserably, Tera is forced to sacrifice herself to Erzsebet Báthory in order to save Maria, and now the remaining heroes are on the run. There’s basically nothing stopping Drolta Tzuentes and her legion of monsters from hunting down their opponents. But just as a bloodthirsty Drolta is about to strike at her prey, a sword pierces her through the heart. And it’s no ordinary blade that finally takes down the vicious vampire but the one belonging to Alucard.

Yes, James Callis returns as the son of Dracula in the final moments of Nocturne, setting up what will likely be a much bigger role for the fan-favorite dhampir in season 2. His surprise cameo makes a lot of sense, as Nocturne is not only meant to adapt elements of Rondo of Blood but some of the other Konami games. Báthory and Tzuentes, for example, are actually from the 1994 Sega Genesis game Castlevania: Bloodlines, which takes place a century after Richter’s adventures. Meanwhile, Juste Belmont hails from the underrated 2002 Game Boy Advance title Harmony of Dissonance.

The show is also meant to bring in more elements from the 1997 PlayStation hit Symphony of the Night, arguably the best entry in the entire series. It’s why a heavily reimagined Olrox, one of the bosses in that installment, is prominently featured in Nocturne. And now we have Alucard, who will not only be a major boost to the ranks of heroes trying to stop Báthory, but whose arrival can bridge the gaps between the first animated series and Nocturne as well as Rondo and Symphony. After all, despite releasing years apart and on completely different game platforms, these two games essentially tell one complete story about Richter.

In fact, if Nocturne season 2 were to adapt Richter’s storyline from Symphony, it would mean some very dark times ahead for the young Belmont. You see, although Richter defeats Dracula and the sorcerer Shaft, the Dark Lord’s most loyal servant, and saves his beloved Annette in Rondo of Blood, things don’t turn out that well for the hero in the aftermath. When we meet Richter again a few years later in Symphony of the Night, he’s become the new Lord of the Castle, taking Dracula’s place as the main villain. His plan? To bring Dracula back from the dead!

But how has this happened? Why has a Belmont joined forces against the family’s sworn enemy?

The chaos forces Alucard to rise from his slumber and head to his father’s castle. It’s during the quest to find Richter that he learns that Shaft is behind Belmont’s sudden change of allegiance. In the time between Rondo and Symphony, the evil priest brainwashed Richter into taking over for Dracula. Much of the first half of Symphony sees Alucard fighting his way through the castle until a boss fight with Richter finally breaks the spell. But they’re both too late to stop Shaft’s ultimate plan, as Dracula is resurrected, launching Alucard into the famous second half of the game where he must make his way through an upside down version of the castle.

Nocturne isn’t completely beholden to the games, of course, and goes in its own direction when it needs to. We likely won’t see a direct adaptation of Symphony, but if the show does choose to use this part of Richter’s story, all of the key pieces are there.

While Shaft isn’t technically in Nocturne — at least not yet — it’s clear the Abbot is meant to fill the role of evil priest. But there’s also Olrox, the vampire that’s haunted Richter for years. Olrox killed Richter’s mother, the vampire hunter Julia Belmont, when he was just a boy and Richter is still dealing with the trauma of that life-altering event as an adult. In fact, when he learns that Olrox is back and working with Báthory in France, his immediate reaction is to run away from a fight before he’s forced to confront the vampire. A vampire who has that much of a hold on a Belmont would certainly think to use that to their advantage, especially Olrox, who has a personal vendetta against Richter.

We learn in the series that Olrox hunted down Julia in America to avenge the death of a lover, who Belmont vanquished prior to the events of Nocturne. And as he stood over Julia’s lifeless corpse, Olrox promised that he’d one day return for Richter so that he too could pay for the sins of his mother. What if Olrox’s final revenge on Julia is to turn her son to evil?

There’s also the vampire queen herself, who could manipulate Richter into joining her cause like she did the Abbot and Tera (in her defense, she didn’t really have much of a choice), leaving Alucard, Annette, and Maria to work together to save the young Belmont. And will it all lead to the return of the Dark Lord himself? In Castlevania lore, Dracula is said to rise once every century. Now that 300 years have passed, we’d say it’s about time for a comeback.

Castlevania: Nocturne is streaming now on Netflix.

Over the last couple of decades, the Open-World genre has slowly come to define Triple-A gaming. In fact, the most popular question that precedes the release of most major modern single-player games is “Is it Open-World?” More and more gamers (especially those who only purchase a couple of major new games a year) seemingly find it difficult to believe that all of that development time and production money (as well as their personal time and money) would go toward a game that doesn’t let them go anywhere, do anything, etc. 

For the most part, the rise of the Open-World genre has been good for gaming. Even older, great franchises (like The Legend of Zelda or FromSoftware’s Soulsborne games) have greatly benefited from pivoting to open worlds. Open-World and sandbox games were seen as the natural evolution of the medium when they started to take off 20+ years ago, and little has changed since then. The very best Open-World titles continue to exceed expectations that already seemed impossibly high.

Yet, for as many great Open-World games as we are regularly blessed with, we’re starting to see more and more Open-World games that fall painfully short of those expectations. It’s not that those games are terrible (though some of them certainly are), but rather that they fail to do enough to justify their open worlds. In some cases, those games are actually made worse by their lazy open worlds. Yes, that statement includes notable disappointments like Gotham Knights, the Saints Row reboot, and Rage 2. More recently, though, it’s grown to include two of the biggest (and otherwise best) games of 2023: Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 2.0. 

The recently released Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update (and the accompanying Phantom Liberty expansion) greatly improves the original game in various ways. The action is better, the character building mechanics are much more robust, and most of those lingering technical issues have finally been fixed. Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 is being called “the game that Cyberpunk 2077 should have always been,” and that’s a pretty fair summary of both the quality and extent of that update’s sweeping changes. 

For as incredible as that update is, though, it does little to address one of Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest launch issues: the game’s dead and barren world. Yes, enemies and NPCs are smarter and more aggressive, and yes, the game finally supports car combat. However, Cyberpunk 2077’s world rarely feels like a place that anyone actually lives in (if only begrudgingly so). Insignificant characters perform redundant activities while large parts of the map go unused. It’s nice that some NPCs actually react to having a gun pointed at them now, but the game rarely leaves you feeling like something is happening in Night City if you’re not causing it at that moment.

Starfield suffers from a similar issue, though in a slightly different way. It is undeniably impressive that the game offers 1000+ planets to explore, but few of those planets (even the ones that contain major cities) actually offer meaningful reasons to explore them for long. “Well, duh,” you’re probably saying, and I hear you. I also didn’t expect all of those planets to offer Rockstar-level Open-World designs, and I accepted that some of those planets would ultimately be resource farms. 

What I didn’t expect was how joyless the process of discovering those worlds would be. Starfield‘s daunting size turns fast travel into even more of a necessity than it was in previous Bethesda titles. What’s really annoying, though, is that Starfield’s designers were seemingly painfully aware of the necessity of fast travel and built much of the rest of the game around it. As a result, you don’t just encounter largely barren planets in Starfield but barren sections of space itself that are mostly intended to be fast-traveled through so you can get to the areas that actually matter.

Ultimately, both games suffer from the same fundamental design issue. Exploring their open worlds isn’t a highlight but rather the thing you have to do to get to the actual highlights. 

To be fair, both games have quite a few highlights worth reaching. Cyberpunk’s already exceptional missions are made that much better by the improved AI, combat, and character building mechanics featured in that recent update. The Phantom Liberty expansion really showcases how great Cyberpunk 2077 can be when you are allowed to focus on those parts of the game.

Similarly, there are numerous quests in Starfield that rank surprisingly high amongst the very best RPG adventures that Bethesda has crafted. I was stunned by both the quality of those quests and how they were often tucked away in parts of the galaxy that the game doesn’t technically make you explore. Granted, that often made it that much more annoying that those quests were often separated by such joyless exploration and extended dead zones. 

Starfield is, fundamentally, an exceptional Bethesda RPG. Cyberpunk 2077 is, fundamentally, an incredible Deus Ex-like RPG. It’s just that the things that make those games great are strung together by Open-World elements that often do little more than remind you of better examples of that genre. I’ve heard of people bouncing off both games, and I truly believe that’s largely because the things that make them great are too often separated by prolonged stretches of tedious navigation that delay the thrill of getting to enjoy the things that really make those games special.

In recent years, the best Open-World games have distinguished themselves by making the process of navigating their worlds enjoyable for reasons other than eventually reaching the thing you really want to do. Marvel’s Spider-Man makes slinging around the city an unrivaled pleasure. Tears of the Kingdom, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Elden Ring make you feel like every corner of the map contains something worth exploring (often because they do). These are games that fundamentally would not work as anything other than Open-World titles. At the very least, they would not work nearly as well as they do. They are not games that feel like they should have been significantly smaller were it not for the lingering pressure of that “Is it Open-World?” question.

Like it or not, that question isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s a shame that smaller games that require significantly less money and significantly less time are often less favored than games that offer at least the illusion of freedom, but that’s where the industry is at. I’ve seen little to suggest that anything significant is going to change on the consumer end of things anytime soon. Quite frankly, given the quality of the best recent Open-World games, I’m not sure that the demand for them should change anytime soon. 

Instead, it falls to studios everywhere to do what Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield often fail to do; find ways to make Open-World games that feel like something more than a smaller, better game broken into pieces and strung together with meaningless McMansion space. After all, if the “Is it Open- World?” question isn’t going anywhere, then the question that really needs to be asked alongside it is, “Why does it deserve to be Open-World?”

In Cyberpunk 2077, Iconic weapons are some of the strongest items you can acquire as you make your way up Night City’s criminal underbelly. These firearms, swords, and clubs are more powerful than most other items and usually sport unique perks that set them apart even further. Since Phantom Liberty introduces a brand new area to explore, complete with more missions, this DLC also packs quite a few new Iconic weapons.

Of course, Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG that lets players decide how to approach different challenges with unique character builds, so not every iconic weapon will gel with every player. Some gamers will gravitate towards an assault rifle that makes enemies explode into pools of acid, others will find themselves drawn to a machete that lights opponents on fire. Several players might even find themselves swinging around a mundane crowbar because it’s a Half-Life reference. Still, almost every new iconic weapon in Phantom Liberty is bound to receive at least some use. Here are the ones we think are the cream of the crop.

Order

In video games, double-barrel shotguns are widely praised for the ability to obliterate enemies, but few have power on par with Order. This tech double-barrel shotgun not only deals plenty of damage, but it also has +100% armor penetration, which is gaming lingo for “it shreds through NPCs.” However, Order’s true claim to fame is its perk. If you charge this weapon above 66% (it takes 3 seconds to reach max charge), it will unleash a volley that vaporizes every enemy in its path and leaves behind an EMP trail. When you need to atomize your enemies, accept no substitutes.

To acquire Order, you have to purchase it from the Black Market vendor.

Murphy’s Law

According to the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary, Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. According to Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Murphy’s Law is an overpowered one-handed club that is ideal for bashing in hostile NPCs. Not only does the weapon penetrate most of an enemy’s armor, but each strike has a chance to shock, bleed, and stun them. The odds are good that one of those effects will work. Even better, if you hit someone when they’re down, this weapon’s attack speed increases. The faster you can attack with Murphy’s Law, the more likely you will shock, bleed, and/or stun them. 

To acquire Murphy’s Law, help Songbird during the final mission, “Firestarter,” and kill the goons Colonel Kurt Hansen sends after you. You should find it on one of their corpses.

Rasetsu

Each classification of weapon has its own advantages. For instance, Tech weapons can be charged up for extra damage and penetration, whereas Smart weapons home in on targets. The Rasetsu blurs the line between these classifications. This Tech sniper rifle boasts a beastly +300% headshot damage multiplier, and each round can be charged up as normal, but unlike other Tech weapons, these shots penetrate enemies. Where do they go after they’re done perforating opponents? Into other opponents, making Rasetsu one of Cyberpunk 2077’s (and video games in general) only AoE sniper rifles. 

To acquire Rasetsu, just make your way through the mission “You Know My Name.” Make your way through the mission until you reach the sniper turret segment, and after that’s finished, simply remove the rifle from its housing. You now have the Rasetsu.

Ogou

Pistols aren’t generally known for their explosive firepower, but Ogou is the exception to this rule. As a smart pistol, Ogou has an easy time hitting its targets. However, instead of firing your average homing bullet, the weapon launches a pair of miniature explosives. Not only is the effect devastating (1.5x so if it lands a critical hit), but each round has a high chance of dismembering the opponent, and each dismemberment increases the pistol’s chance to deal a critical strike and cause bleeding. With the right amount of luck, Ogou will steamroll the opposition and leave the battlefield a mess of separated limbs. Maybe Skippy was right to aim for enemy kneecaps.

To acquire Ogou, kill the Robot R Mk.II boss during the gig “Treating Symptoms.” Loot the weapon of its non-functioning husk. 

Wild Dog

Some weapons shine when you squeeze off one or two shots at a time or fire in bursts, while others excel when you hold down the trigger for several seconds. Power light machine guns like Wild Dog fall into the latter category. The weapon might be heavy, but every hit you land increases its fire rate and crit chance, which means fights can easily devolve into a conga line of critical hits. And if Wild Dog’s bullets don’t finish off enemies, its butt will since the gun’s melee attack damage skyrockets when it’s out of ammo.

To acquire Wild Dog, help out Solomon Reed during “Firestarter.” Kill Colonel Hansen and loot his corpse for the weapon.

Bald Eagle and Fang

Technically cheating here since this is two Iconic weapons instead of one, but Bald Eagle and Fang (not to be confused with Blue Fang) are actually designed to work with each other, If you use one, you need the other.

On their own, these weapons are pretty powerful. Bald Eagle fires explosive rounds and deals some nasty headshot bonus damage, and Fang has a relatively high chance of making enemies bleed. Plus, if you throw this knife into an NPC, you hobble them and improve your melee damage output. However, Bald Eagle and Fang are devastating when you use them as a one-two punch. First, pin them by throwing Fang. Then, shoot Fang with Bald Eagle. Not only does this tactic shred your target to pieces, but it also magically recalls Fang to your inventory, which lets you repeat the process and use Fang like a sticky grenade.

To acquire Bald Eagle and Fang, just repeat the process you used to obtain Wild Dog. All three weapons should be on Colonel Hansen after you kill him.

Crimestopper

Normally, Smart weapons only target one opponent at a time. This ability is overpowered enough as it is, but what if you could lock onto two enemies at once? Want no more with the Crimestopper. As previously stated, this Smart pistol lets you fire bullets blindly, and its software will make sure they find both of your targets. However, there’s more to Crimestopper than literal blind firing. Each bullet has a chance to immobilize whatever it hits, leaving them frozen like a deer in the headlights. Plus, any attack against an immobilized opponent deals extra crit damage. Crime doesn’t pay…unless you’re the one committing it with the Crimestopper.

To acquire Crimestopper, enter the DA’s VIP room in Heavy Hearts during the gig “Heaviest of Hearts.” Open their luggage to find this weapon.

Cyberpunk 2077‘s 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty expansion do a lot of great things for the controversial RPG. While they may not make you forgive Cyberpunk 2077 for its previous sins, those updates do make the game…well, pretty great, actually. Of course, no elements of Cyberpunk 2077 benefited more from those updates than the game’s various character building systems.

While building your Cyberpunk 2077 character was always a good time, Phantom Liberty and 2.0 overhaul that entire process in ways that really allow you to come up with some truly creative stuff. Of course, all of those new, interesting, and complex options also make it that much more difficult to figure out how to build an optimized character even if you know what kind of basic playstyle you’re shooting for. Well, that’s why we’re here to (hopefully) help.

Before we get into all of that, though, please note that these builds are optimized for the Phantom Liberty expansion and the 10 extra Attribute and Perk Points you get from that expansion. While you can make some of these builds (or versions of them) work without those extra points (and the expansion’s Relic Perks), you may have to cut some corners or look elsewhere if you’re trying to stay under the 2.0 level cap.

Finally, while this article only contains a few builds that have already proven their worth, I will be sharing additional builds once I have more time to experiment with them. I’ll be sure to share those builds via updates and future articles if there is any interest in them.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty: Best Netrunner Build

Essential Cyberware, Weapons, and Gear: Smart SMGs, Militech Paraline Mk.4, Ex-Disk, Cox-2 Cybersomatic Optimizer

Full Build Perk Tree

This is a pretty standard Netrunner build that ultimately aims to utilize as many quickhack abilities as possible. It turns out that Cyberpunk 2077 2.0‘s revamped quickhack abilities are kind of broken, so you’re going to want to grab as many of them as possible. 

With that in mind, let’s start with the Intelligence tree. Simply put, your first goal with this build is to acquire the Overclock Perk. That powerful ability allows you to utilize quickhacks even if you are out of RAM. While you have to pay 10 Health for every used RAM slot over your current limit, Overclock actually comes with some useful sub-Perks that mitigate that effect or even take advantage of it to offer additional damage bonuses.

Among other things, Overclock allows you to ensure that you can almost always utilize your quickhacks in battle rather than needing to pick and choose their deployment quite as often as you did in the past. That synergizes well with the abilities on the left side of the Intelligence tree, which largely affect your ability to queue multiple quickhacks on single targets and more effectively utilize quickhacks while recovering RAM. 

Once you unlock the bulk of the middle and left side portions of the Intelligence tree, you’ll essentially be the hacker sorcerer you always dreamed of being in this game. By the time you acquire Spillover (which grants your quickhacks a modest chance to spread to nearby enemies), you’ll even be turning your already devastating single-target quickhacks into devastating AoE bombs. You’ll reach a point where your biggest threat will be the damage you do to yourself by overloading your RAM.

That’s why the secret MVP of this build is your Smart SMG (or Smart SMGs, more specifically). The Intelligence tree allows you to greatly enhance the effectiveness of Smart weapons (which makes those Perks a natural pickup), but the real prize of this package is the Reflexes Perk: Submachine Fun. That powerful Perk lets you instantly reload an SMG by swapping to another SMG in your arsenal. That same tree allows you to acquire a number of Perks that reduce your overall Stamina costs while moving and shooting. 

At worst, you’ll often be able to utilize your buffed Smart SMGs whenever you may need to rest your hacking abilities for whatever reason. At best, though, you’ll often be using those attacks in conjunction with each other in order to maximize your damage output against even larger groups of tougher enemies. 

The rest of this build is in the “flex” territory, especially if you don’t have the Phantom Liberty expansion. The Technical tree is a natural companion to what we’re doing, though you won’t actually invest too many Perk points into it if you’re not picking up Edgerunner (which probably isn’t worth it). Body is actually a better overall investment as it allows you to make up for some of the health losses you get from Overlocked. That middle part of the Body tree is also a great investment for most builds. Again, though, it depends on whether you have the expansion and where you want to prioritize the leftover points. 

Finally, your choice of quickhacks and Cyberware is largely up to you and will change depending on what stage of the game you’re in. However, top-tier quickhacks like Cyberware Malfunction, Contagion, Synapse Burnout, and Weapon Glitch are quite nice. As for Cyberware, you’re largely looking for anything that grants you extra health, extra RAM, and anything that enhances your primary sources of damage. However, Cox-2 Cybersomatic Optimizer crawls into the “essential” tier due to the fact that it allows your quickhacks to trigger Critical Strikes. However, there are a couple more pieces of Cyberware that accomplish the same thing if you need to use one until then.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – Best Blade and Throwing Weapon Build

Essential Cyberware, Weapons, and Gear: Mantis Blades, Errata Thermal Katana, Militech Berserk Cyberware

Full Build Perk Tree

For this melee build, I’m opting for Blades (specifically, Mantis Blades) over Gorilla Arms and other blunt options. Why? Personal fun factor, mostly, though I do find that the Blade Perks in the game are slightly better than their alternatives. 

Most of your early points in this build are going to be split between the Reflex and Body trees. Reflex is where we pick up the majority of our Blade and movement-enhancing abilities, which are the cornerstones of our build. While you may think you want to pick up all of those Blade abilities on the right side of the tree as soon as possible, you’ll actually want to veer between the middle and right branches as you level. 

That’s because the middle branch contains both those incredible new movement abilities that help make Cyberpunk 2077 2.0‘s combat so much more enjoyable and invaluable Stamina reduction modifiers that make melee combat viable in the first place. By acquiring all of the relevant Perks in these trees, you’ll be able to do what this build is intended to do: dash between enemies while pulling off enhanced blade attacks and regularly triggering finishers. You should always be moving and always be attacking with this build in order to enjoy all of its benefits and enhancements.

As for Body…well, even elusive melee builds are going to put themselves in harm’s way, and those Body perks will keep you alive when you should be dead. They’re not always the most exciting Perks to acquire, but you will need to pick them up from time to time once you feel the difficulty ramp up. For what it’s worth, Adrenaline Rush actually does greatly enhance the effectiveness and enjoyability of this build. 

However, the quiet star of this build may be the Throwable weapon Perks you get from the Cool tree. These Perks greatly enhance the power level of Throwable weapons in ways I was not anticipating. The raw damage you deal to enemies with all of these Perks enabled is impressive enough, but it’s the surprising effectiveness and synergies of the Poison effects that really make this Perk path shine. Poison makes it that much easier to wear down larger topics as a melee player, and those throwable headshot Perks greatly enhance your overall power level when you manage to proc them (which is surprisingly easy to do).

Granted, you have to take some less-than-ideal Perks to unlock that incredible Style over Substance Perk, but given how often this build will be sliding, dodging, and dashing, guaranteed Critical Hits for your Thrown weapons is too good to pass up. Once you get the hang of starting your fights with a properly aimed Thrown weapon (and weaving them in and out from there), you’ll wonder how you ever lived without these abilities. It just feels broken at times.

The rest of our Perk points go to the Technical tree, largely due to a relative lack of viable alternatives. The Technical tree is filled with universal buffs to the Cyberware and healing items you’ll certainly be using, so there isn’t any reason to just pick them up and make the things you’re already doing that much more effective. You could incorporate some quickhacks into your build instead, but I honestly find that slowing down for even a moment with this build can throw you off your rhythm. The same goes for guns. You can definitely make a Blade and Pistol combo work, but you can’t really do it with the points left over after you acquire the other essential parts of this build. 

Finally, let’s talk about gear. The Militech Berserk Cyberware implant takes this build to another level as it allows you to reduce your Stamina costs by 100% while increasing your Attack Speed and Attack Power for the low cost of only using melee weapons. Oh, and it also makes you invulnerable to damage for its 12-second duration. It’s basically the “god mode” implant. 

Also, while I would have recommended a katana over Mantis Blades prior to the Phantom Liberty expansion, the Relic Perks you get from that expansion do enhance the general effectiveness of Mantis Blades in ways that work perfectly with the rest of this build. Try both and see which works best for you, though I think many will end up opting for Mantis Blades most of the time.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – Best Edgeunner Build

Essential Cyberware, Weapons, and Gear: Gorilla Arms, Adreno Trigger, Leeroy’s Ligament System, and Militech “Falcon” Sandevistan

Full Build Perk Tree

This is essentially a variation on the old “David Martinez” build from the base game, which is now more viable than ever thanks to the power of the Edgerunner perk. 

Generally, the Edgerunner Perk allows you to push your body past its reasonable limits by installing more Cyberware than you probably should. Along with being able to enjoy more (and more powerful) Cyberware, this Perk will also occasionally grant you an absurd damage bonus that allows you to instantly kill most things in your way. The downside is that you sacrifice more maximum health the further you push your character past their pre-determined Cyberware limit. 

That being the case, you may be wondering why you would want to focus on melee and close-range attacks for a build that has to sacrifice max health. Well, there are two main reasons. 

The first is Gorilla Arms: the heart of this build. With the right combination of Perks, you can turn Gorilla Arms into arguably the most powerful melee damage option in the game. Most of your Gorilla Arms strikes will turn enemies into piles of goo, which is obviously an ideal outcome for any blunt melee strategy. However, Gorilla Arms also boast incredible Shockwave AoE stun abilities (especially once you unlock Relics), and allow you to actually throw enemies at other enemies for devastating damage bonuses. Of course, picking up Gorilla Arms and building around it means that you’re inherently “spending” quite a few Cyberware points. At the very least, Edgerunner allows you to make up for those spent points. 

That’s the other big benefit of picking up Edgerunner with a melee-focused build. The biggest downside to Edgerunner is losing your Max Health, and one of the best ways to gain additional health benefits is to invest in the Body tree. Well, the Body tree also happens to contain some incredible melee abilities. The synergy between Edgerunner, Body, and strong close-range/melee attacks is just too good to pass up. Investing heavily in Body means that you can pick up all that extra Cyberware without needing to ensure that all of that extra Cyberware is just there to compensate for taking Edgerunner in the first place. 

Admittedly, going that route does make the rest of this build slightly awkward. For instance, you’ll notice that I invested quite a few points into the Cool tree without actually taking any Perks in it. Well, that’s because I’m opting to go with Shotgun-based Perks instead of picking up Pistol Perks. That’s largely because it’s easier to use Shotguns in the close ranges that we’ll regularly be operating in. If, however, you’d rather have additional ranged options, then I do think that picking up Pistol Perks is your best bet (which is why those extra points are going into Cool in the first place). 

I suppose you could also remove some Perk points from the left side of the Technical Ability tree, but I wouldn’t advise sacrificing that part of the build. Not only do you get some fantastic Health item buffs from that section, but the amount of Cyberware you’ll be taking basically turns Ticking Time Bomb into a nuclear weapon. 

Gear-wise, Adreno Trigger, Leeroy’s Ligament System, and Militech “Falcon” Sandeveistan are your essential pickups alongside your Gorilla Arms. Each of those pieces of Cyberware allows you to close larger gaps in record time and deal more damage once you’re there.

While you may be tempted to fill your remaining Cyberware slots with defensive/health regen items in order to compensate for Edgerunner, I would caution against making that assumption. You really only need a few good pieces of Circulatory Cyberware and perhaps another good defensive installment in most situations. This build is actually designed to be inherently durable, so you actually want to best more in your close-range/melee damage whenever possible. 

Cyberpunk 2077‘s Phantom Liberty expansion is filled with new weapons, new stories, new characters, new areas, and…well, a bunch of other new things across the board. However, Phantom Liberty‘s most significant addition to the base Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 experience may just be Relic Perks.

Relic Perks add an entirely new branch to Cyberpunk 2077‘s character-building tree. Aside from the raised level cap you’ll enjoy in the Phantom Liberty expansion, they also offer the most substantial way to raise your character’s general power level. Yet, for as important as Relics can be, I’ve found that the Phantom Liberty expansion kind of brushes them off or perhaps just does a poor job of explaining what they are and what they can do for you.

That being the case, here’s a better look at what Relic Perks do, how to acquire them, and which ones you really want.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – What Are Relic Perks?

Relic Perks are new abilities introduced in the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion. While Relic Perks are relatively limited compared to other Perks and Skills in Cyberpunk 2077, every Relic Perk will grant you access to an incredibly powerful new ability. This is the highest of high-tech Cyberware available in Cyberpunk 2077’s world, and each Relic upgrade clearly reflects the power and rarity of that technology.

Despite their incredible power, though, Relic Perks are a bit more “specialized” than some of the other Perks you’ll find in the game. Each branch of the Relic tree tends to cater to a slightly different basic playstyle (melee, guns, and stealth, specifically). Actually, some Relic upgrades require you to have a specific weapon or piece of Cyberware to be used in the first place. While you can take as many Relic Perks as you like, properly using them all will require you to mix and match your playstyles a bit. 

However, please note that Relic Perks are exclusive to the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion and cannot be acquired in the 2.0 update. That’s because the mechanics that drive these upgrades (as well as how they are introduced to the narrative) are both exclusive to the new characters and storylines featured in the Phantom Liberty expansion. 

Speaking of which…

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – How to Upgrade and Acquire Relic Perks

Unlike other Perks and Skills in Cyberpunk 2077, which are upgraded by earning XP, Relic Perks can only be acquired by earning Relic Points in the Dogtown area of the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion. There are two ways to acquire those Relic Points:

• Completing certain objectives in Phantom Liberty’s main story. 
• Finding and hacking Relic Terminals spread throughout Dogtown. These bright yellow terminals are usually hidden from plain sight, though they are easy to identify once you spot one.

If you don’t go out of your way to find those Relic Points, you will not be able to work your way through the Relic Skill Tree. You could max out every other aspect of your character and still never acquire any additional Relic Perks if you don’t find those Relic Points.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – How Many Relic Points Can You Earn?

There are 15 total Relic Points in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. If you acquire all of them, you will be able to unlock every upgrade in the Relic Perk tree. However, please note that some upgrades are limited to the use of specific weapons and items. If you don’t have those weapons and items equipped, you won’t be able to actually use those Perks. 

Keep in mind that you can also refund and reassign your Relic Perk points via the Relic menu whenever you’d like. Given that you acquire enough Relic Points at the start of the expansion to unlock one of the three main Relic branches, that means that you’ll be able to try each of those main skills as soon as possible to see which one is best for you. 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – Every Relic Perk Explained

The Relic Perk Tree is divided into three major branches: Emergency Cloaking, Vulnerability Analytics, and Jailbreak. Each of those Relic Perks costs three Relic Points, and acquiring one of them will eventually allow you to unlock a subsequent series of related upgrades for one (1) Relic Point. 

Here is what every upgrade in the Relic Perk tree does:

Vulnerability Analytics (3 Relic Points)

During combat, you can now detect Vulnerabilities in enemy Armor and Cyberware. Hitting Vulnerabilities gives:

100% Crit Chance

+25 Armor Penetration

Weakspot Damage Bonuses

Dealing enough damage to a Vulnerability will cause it to explode, generating an EMP blast that damages enemies within 3 meters

Vulnerability Analytics – Machine Learning (1 Relic Point)

Destroying an enemy’s Vulnerability grants: 

+10% frequency of new Vulnerabilities appearing

+5% Crit Damage against Vulnerabilities

Duration: 25 seconds

This effect can stack 5 times and reaching max stacks doubles these effects.

Emergency Cloaking (3 Relic Points)

Improves Optical Camo Cyberware.

Activating Optical Camo during combat will cause enemies to lose track of you, giving you a chance to exit combat. 

Note: To use this ability, you must have Optical Camo equipped to your Combat Gadget quick slot.

Emergency Cloaking – Sensory Protocol (1 Relic Point)

When crouched, becoming detected by an enemy will temporarily slow time. Dodge or Dashout of the enemy’s line of sight to immediately exit combat. 

Cooldown: 120 seconds

Jailbreak (3 Relic Points)

Mantis Blades

Dismembering an enemy or performing a Finisher with Mantis Blades will charge the next Leap Attack.

A charged Leap Attack with Mantis Blades has +30 meters longer reach and deals massive damage with a wide slash that hits the target and other nearby enemies. 

Killing an enemy with this attack also dismembers them. 

Gorilla Arms

Attacking with Gorilla Arms now charges them up. When fully charged, a Strong Attack deals massive damage and creates a shockwave, staggering nearby enemies.

Neutralizing an enemy this way will send their body flying.

Projectile Launch System

You can now overcharge the Projectile Launch System. This launches a burst of 5 projectiles that cover a larger area.

Monowire

The Monowire now has a dedicated slot for Control quick hacks.

To use the installed quickhacks, charge the Monowire. When Fully charged, release the attack to deal damage and upload the quickhack without paying its RAM cost.

Jailbreak – Spatial Mapping (1 Relic Point)

All Leap Attacks with Mantis Blades now cripple enemies and increase dismemberment chance against those same enemies for 10 seconds. 

Jailbreak – Limiter Removal (1 Relic Point) 

The shockwave from a charred Gorilla Arms attack now knocks down all enemies within range. 

Jailbreak – Launch Capacity Override (1 Relic Point)

+1 charge for the Projectile Launch System.

Jailbreak – Data Tunneling (1 Relic Point)

When an enemy is affected by a Monowire-uploaded quickhack, normal Monowire attacks which hit that enemy and other enemies simultaneously will spread the quickhack to them. 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – What Is the Best Relic Perk?

Keep in mind that each of the Relic Perks in Phantom Liberty caters to different styles of play. So, if you pick up a stealth-based Relic Perk and don’t plan on using stealth abilities, you’re going to have a bad time. 

That being said, Vulnerability Analytics is probably the best Relic Perk in Cyberpunk 2077: Phanom Liberty.

Why? Well, it turns out that being able to target a guaranteed critical hit zone that grants additional damage bonuses is incredibly useful. While you kind of need to upgrade this ability to “Machine Learning” to combat this Relic Perk’s greatest weaknesses (its relatively low frequency of appearance during prolonged fights), the bonuses you get from those abilities make some of the surprisingly tough fights in Phantom Liberty significantly easier to deal with. It’s just an exceptional combat-based Relic Perk that you absolutely need to try.

Of course, if you’re a melee fan, then you obviously need to unlock Jailbreak instead (even if Vulnerability Analytics can still be useful to you). What you’re really probably wondering is, “Which Jailbreak ability is best?”

So far as that goes, I think that honor would have to go to either Mantis Blades or Gorilla Arms. Personally, I think that leaping around with Mantis Blades is not just one of the most effective forms of combat in Cyberpunk 2077 2.0/Phantom Liberty but one of the most enjoyable forms of combat as well. That being said, this new update made Gorilla Arms much more consistent than they were in the past, and that shockwave ability can be utterly devastating.

I find that the Gorilla Arms Relic Perk is the most consistent in terms of how often you’ll trigger it in the average fight. However, Mantis Blades are much faster and have the potential to be more powerful in the long run. Your personal play preferences and builds will ultimately determine which one you go with. 

Monowire is interesting but it’s a bit awkward to use. I love the idea of applying quickhacks via your melee attacks, but to be honest, I find that either focusing on quickhacks or melee attacks tends to be more powerful than trying to combine both in this way. You can absolutely make a Monowire build work, but quickhacks by themselves are arguably overpowered and melee attacks can also be game-breaking. Combining those two ultimately means sacrificing a bit from both.

Projectile Launch System is almost certainly the weakest of the Jailbreak options. Those abilities are certainly powerful, but they’re not particularly exciting, and I think you’d have a hard time justifying investing those valuable Relic Points into them over some of the other options available to you. I’ve yet to play with or even see a build that really feels like it’s getting the most out of those abilities. Pick them up if you have the extra Relic Points, but don’t go out of your way for them.

However, I still think that Emergency Cloaking is the weakest overall Relic Perk. While the ability to exit combat so quickly is obviously nice for stealth builds, I’ve just found that there are more situations in Phantom Liberty where you’ll want combat bonuses rather than the ability to exit combat (largely due to the difficulty of some of the unavoidable fights in the expansion). Now, the good news is that Emergency Cloaking can fairly easily be used in conjunction with various other playstyles. Even still, it’s hard to justify picking this over your other initial options. 

Cyberpunk 2077’s first (and only) DLC, Phantom Liberty, is finally here. It’s been a long three years, but the wait is finally over. Plus, the game recently received a facelift that reinvigorated numerous mechanics and systems, which is a huge boon. While the DLC adds new missions, weapons, and rides, the main draw is its new questline, which takes place in an equally new section of Night City, Dogtown. 

If we could sum up the narrative of Phantom Liberty, it would be Ghost in the Shell meets Escape from New York, starring Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves. Sounds fun, right? You probably want to start this mission as soon as you can. Well, here’s how.

Technically, you don’t have to do anything too out of the ordinary to unlock Phantom Liberty’s content. The only requirement, aside from owning the DLC, is completing the main story mission “Transmission,” i.e., the one where you do some netrunning for Brigitte in a tub filled with ice.

Once you mark that item off your checklist, you will receive a call from Songbird, and she will give you the mission “Dog Eat Dog.” Just follow the quest markers, and you’ll enter Dogtown and start the DLC quest soon enough. If you load an existing save file well past “Transmission,” Songbird will call you the next time you go to sleep — at least that’s what happened to one of Gamespot’s writers.

If you haven’t finished “Transmission” but want to jump into the Phantom Liberty campaign immediately, you can do so but at a cost: You have to start a new game from scratch. If you select “New Game” at the startup menu, Cyberpunk 2077 will bring up two options, “Regular Start” and “Skip Ahead to Phantom Liberty.” The first one, obviously, lets you create a new V and experience all of Update 2.0’s new skills, lifepath changes, and other improvements.

CD Projekt RED recommends this option since it will help you get a handle on the patch’s new features, but if you would rather learn as you go, you can jump into the Phantom Liberty content with the second option. If you do so, the game will generate a pre-made V with set attributes and perks — but you can still alter their background appearance. Don’t worry, you can respec your V’s perks and attributes later.

After you’re done, the game will drop you into V’s apartment at level 15 and with 20,000 Eddies to your name. Songbird will call you and give you the mission “Dog Eat Dog.” As usual, just follow the quest markers, and you’ll get swept up into the events of Phantom Liberty before you can say “braindance.”

And that’s all you need to know about starting Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty campaign. Are you a chromed-up enough choom to rescue the president? Only one way (ok, two ways) to find out.

Cyberpunk 2077’s latest update launched on September 21, packed with ability and equipment reworks, and the game’s sole DLC will land in a few days. To celebrate, CD Projekt RED is teaming up with Twitch to give away free duds that will turn any old choom into a nova Street Samurai.

You can start earning Cyberpunk 2077 Twitch drops on September 25 at 1 pm CEST (7 am EST/4 am PST) by tuning into certain Twitch streams to earn exclusive clothing items inspired by agents of the game’s new U.S. government (NUS for short). Rewards include a pair of NUS Infiltrator Pants, NUS Infiltrator Boots, a NUS Infiltrator Jacket, and NUS Infiltrator Headgear. All you have to do is watch one hour’s worth of a Cyberpunk 2077 stream on an account with active Twitch Drops.

However, unlike most Twitch giveaways, these items will follow staggered schedules. You can earn the NUS Infiltrator Pants starting September 25, but you have to wait until October 3 at 12 am CEST (6 am EST/3 am PST) to make progress towards the NUS Infiltrator Boots and Jacket. The Headgear, meanwhile, is a little more complicated.

As with the other Cyberpunk 2077 Twitch Drops, if you want the Headgear, you have to watch at least one hour of content on participating streams, but since this item is a custom drop, you need to be a little more selective with your viewing choices. CD Projekt RED has included a list of all the streamers you can watch for the helmet, and odds are you will recognize some of the names. No matter whose stream you join, once you earn an article of clothing through Twitch (and claim it from your Twitch Drops menu), you can find it in-game by visiting V’s apartment. However, clothes aren’t all the collaboration has to offer.

Anyone who watches an affiliated Twitch partner playing Cyberpunk 2077 can give them two Twitch subscriptions of any tier to earn a free Yasha sniper rifle. This iconic weapon is only available through Twitch, and unlike other stream drops, once you fulfill its requirements you will receive a code in your Twitch notification box. Enter the code on the Cyberpunk 2077 code redemption web page, and the sniper rifle will be mailed to your in-game stash within 24 hours.

Like many Twitch Drop giveaways, this Cyberpunk 2077-themed one will be subject to several caveats. First and definitely most importantly, while anyone can watch the participating streams and earn the rewards while doing so, you can’t use them in-game unless you own both the Cyberpunk 2077 base game and its Phantom Liberty DLC. Moreover, unless you link your Twitch and GOG accounts, your rewards will expire after seven days. And if you own Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, you will also have to link your GOG account to your console copy. Last, but certainly not least, this collaboration giveaway will run until October 21 at 11:59 pm CEST (5:59 pm EST/2:59 pm PST). At present, you will not have the chance to earn these items bast that point.

That’s all you need to know about the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Twitch Drop program, but CD Projekt RED has stated it might partner with Twitch for future collaborations. Until then, enjoy the free NUS gear.

Cyberpunk 2.0 changes so many things about the base Cyberpunk 2077 experience that it might as well be a new game. While it will take you quite some time to navigate the update’s many changes, 2.0‘s new Skill Progression system may just be its most confusing and important new feature.

So if you want to get the most out of your Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 build (and why wouldn’t you?), here is pretty much everything you need to know about the game’s modified Skill system:

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Skill Progression Explained

In the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update, Skills are passive upgrades that are divided into five major categories: Headhunter, Shinobi, Netrunner, Solo, and Engineer.

Each of those skill categories provides a series of (mostly passive) benefits related to the theme of the category. So Headhunter will gradually increase your headshot damage (among other things) while Netrunner expands your quickhack capabilities.

What’s the point of this new system? Well, it essentially replaces the old Perk system while working in conjunction with Cyberpunk 2077 2.0‘s new Perk system. Basically, the old Cyberpunk 2077 Perk system was filled with upgrades that largely offered statistical buffs to a character’s primary attributes. While useful, those buffs were not particularly exciting and didn’t always feel worthy of the valuable points that went into them.

So, the new Skill system allows you to acquire many of those same statistical buffs (and more) without having to spend Perk points. Instead, the Perk system is now free to support a greater array of more interesting abilities, and the Skill system can be leveled up just by performing certain actions related to those Skill categories.

In typical RPG fashion, though, leveling up a Skill path will become more difficult as you progress. So while you may acquire many early progression points in each major Skill category by accident later on, you’ll eventually need to focus on leveling up certain Skill Progression paths by completing specific actions if you want to reach the highest possible levels.

What actions? Glad you asked…

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Headhunter Skill Progression

The Headhunter skill can be leveled up by completing certain feats during combat. The best (and most obvious) way to level up the Headhunter Skill is to score headshots on enemies with any weapon. However, you can also level up Headhunter by performing other specialized combat techniques such as silenced weapon takedowns or targeting an enemy’s known weak points.

Alternatively, it does appear you can slowly level up this skill by using Pistols, Revolvers, Silenced Weapons, Knives, Axes, and Throwing Weapons. However, it seems to be much more efficient to go for headshots, so if there is a weapon you feel comfortable consistently scoring headshots with (such as an assault rifle), then that may be your best bet.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Headhunter Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Decreases Visibility to Enemies by 10%.
Rank 10: 10% Headshot Damage and 10% Damage Against Vulnerabilities
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: No Weapon Sway When Crouched
Rank 25: Decreases Visibility to Enemies by 10%
Rank 30: 15% Headshot Damage and 15% Damage Against Vulnerabilities
Rank 35: Gain a perk point
Rank 40: Optical Camo Is Active While Grappling Enemies
Rank 45: Decreases Recovery Time After a Throw by 30%
Rank 50: 30% Faster When Crouch Walking and Crouch Sprinting
Rank 55: Damage Bonus From Being Undetected Outside of Combat Persist for 3 Seconds After Entering Combat.
Rank 60: 15% Optical Camo Charge when Neutralizing an Enemy in One of the Following Ways: During Focus Mode, During Deadeye Mode, With a Thrown Weapon.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Nerunner Skill Progression

Netrunner is probably the easiest Skill Progression path to understand and eventually level.

In order to progress along this path, you just need to hack everything you can. While quickhacks will be the quickest and most reliable way to advance your progression along this path, you can also gain experience from hacking terminals and other objects in the environment. If it requires you to use your Intelligence abilities, it will probably advance your progression along these paths.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Netrunner Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Increases RAM Recovery Rate by 5%
Rank 10: Increases RAM by 1
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: +20% Lock-On Range With Smart Weapons
Rank 25: Increases RAM Recovery Rate by 5%
Rank 30: Increases RAM by 1
Rank 35: +1 Perk Point
Rank 40: -20% RAM Cost For Quickhacks Used on Devices and Vehicles
Rank 45: +15% Duration For Control and Convert Quickhacks. +5% Damage With Combat Quickhacks.
Rank 50: +40% Duration For Overclock
Rank 55: -10% Health Loss From Using Quickhacks During Overclock.
Rank 60: When Active, Overlock Now Reveals Enemies Within 10 meters and Allows You To Quickhack Non-Netrunner Enemies Through Cover

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Shinobi Skill Progression

Shinobi is a bizarre Skill Progression path that basically asks you to play like a ninja (minus the obvious stealth tactics). Using weapons like Katanas, Machetes, Chainswords, or the Mantis Blades will always level up your Shinobi path. However, you can also gain Shinobi points by using Assault Rifles and SMGs. Performing acrobatic maneuvers (like running, dashing, sliding, and climbing) will also grant you Shinobi points, though perhaps slightly slower than other methods will.

Realistically, many players will probably end up trying to level Shinobi and Headhunter together given some of their natural synergies. Scoring headshots with an Assault Rifle will level up Shinobi and Headhunter, and going with a stealth melee build will require a little from each category.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Shinobi Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Increases Movement Speed by 5%
Rank 10: -5% Stamina Cost From Dodging and Dashing
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: Better accuracy after dodging or dashing
Rank 25: Increased Accuracy For a Short Time After Dodging and Dashing
Rank 30: Decreased stamina cost for dodging and dashing
Rank 35: +1 Perk Point
Rank 40: Increased Mitigation Chance The Faster You Move
Rank 45: +25 Damage With Fast Attacks
Rank 50: Air Dashing and Sliding Automatically Reload 20% of Your Equipped Weapon
Rank 55: When Attacking From Midair or While Time Is Slowed, Low Stamina Does Not Affect Ranged Accuracy or Melee Attack Speed
Rank 60: When Sandevistan is Active: +40 Crit Chance and No Stamina Cost For Any Type of Movement

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Solo Skill Progression

Another initially odd Skill Progression path, Solo is basically best thought of as the “heavy” Skill. You’ll level it up by using close-range weapons like Shotguns, LMGs, Clubs, Fists, Gorilla Arms, and other blunt melee objects. As you can see, though, blades like Katanas do not affect your Solo progression.

Because of that, this isn’t quite the universal close-range progression path you may initially think it is. However, that is the general idea behind this Skill, and it certainly will help anyone who favors less subtle methods of play and progression.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Solo Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Increases Carrying Capacity by 50
Rank 10: Increases Health by 10
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: Fists and Gorilla Arms Have: +20% Damage and +20% Attack Speed. Fists also have a Chance to Apply Bleeding.
Rank 25: Increases Carrying Capacity by 100
Rank 30: Increases Health by 15
Rank 35: +1 Perk Point
Rank 40: +10% Crit Chance Against Enemies Within 5 meters
Rank 45: +25% Damage With Strong Attacks and Quick Melee Attacks
Rank 50: +25 Health After Performing a Finisher
Rank 55: When Adrenaline Rush is Active, Adrenaline Decays 50% Slower and Cannot Decay Below 10%
Rank 60: When Berserk Is Active: +30% Enemy Health Threshold to Perform Finishers, +50% Health From Performing Finishers, and +30% Bersker Duration

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Engineer Skill Progression

You can level up the Engineer path by performing a variety of actions related to high-tech gear. That naturally includes Smart Weapons, Projectiles, Cyberware, Bolts, and Crafting, but it also extends to many thrown explosives and damage-over-time effects triggered by elemental abilities.

For the most part, though, this is the extension of the “Tech” Perk system. It’s one of the rare Skill Progression paths you’ll regularly level up by performing non-combat activities (crafters will be able to blaze through this path), but those who rely on explosives and elemental damage will certainly welcome the benefits this path has to offer.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Engineer Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Increases Armor by 15
Rank 10: Increases Cyberware Capacity by 5
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: +10 Grenade Damage and Explosion Radius
Rank 25: Increases Armor by 25
Rank 30: Increases Cyberware Capacity by 10
Rank 35: +1 Perk Point
Rank 40: Increased Shock Chance From Charging a Tech Weapon or Electric Baton
Rank 45: +15% Item Health Effectiveness
Rank 50: +30% To All Cyberware Stat Modifiers
Rank 55: 10% Damage With Bolt Shots and +40% Burn Chance With Bolt Shots. Chain Lightning Now Sets Enemies on Fire.
Rank 60: When Fury is Active, You Occasionally Release an EMP Blast

Playing Cyberpunk 2077’s Update 2.0 is like playing a brand-new game. The patch reworks combat, equipment, and skills to the point where they are almost unrecognizable. On one hand, these changes give the game a brand new lease on life. On the other hand, it means all your previous stat and perk builds are absolutely useless. While you can restart your Night City adventure from scratch, it’s much easier to just respec.

Technically, Cyberpunk 2077 has two kinds of character respecs: a Perk respec and an attribute respec. The former lets you refund Perk points and use them to acquire other abilities, while the latter resets your stats to the baseline and lets you redistribute them as you see fit.

To respec Perks in Cyberpunk 2077 2.0, simply bring up the game’s menu screen, navigate to the “Character” tab, and select an attribute. Next, hover the cursor over the perk you want to refund and hit the button on the tooltip next to the word “Refund” (e.g., “Y” on the Xbox Series X’s controller and the middle mouse button on PC).

Nine times out of ten, that’s all you need to do, but if you invested some points into side Perks, you can’t refund the main perk until you’ve deselected the side Perk. For instance, if you have Data Recycler and Hack Queue unlocked, you can’t refund Hack Queue until you get rid of Data Recycler. Moreover, if any perks unlock a Cyberware slot or a specific type of Cyberware, you can’t refund the perk until you unequip its linked item.

While you can refund Perks at any time, if you log into an old save after installing Update 2.0, the game will automatically reimburse all of your perk points. If you want to try a new build, you will have to refund every Perk individually. While this process is time-consuming, it is much easier than Cyberpunk 2077’s previous Perk respec system, which required players to purchase the Tabula e-Rasa shard for a not-insignificant 25,000 Eddies.

Resetting attribute points is easier than respeccing Perks, but it is also much more limited since you can only perform the action once per game. To do this, revisit the “Character” tab, and select the “Reset Attributes” button on the bottom-left corner of the screen. A tab will pop up telling you that you can only do this once. If you accept, you will continue with the respec. Otherwise, the game will save your one free attribute do-over for a later time. Unlike the perk refund system, the “Reset Attributes” function reimburses all of your points in one fell swoop, which lets you redistribute them. 

After respeccing, take care where you decide where to put all of your stats, as the perk system circa Update 2.0 ties abilities to attributes. The more points you put in a stat, the stronger Perks you can acquire, with the strongest abilities being locked behind maxed-out stats (i.e., 20 points in one attribute).

As of Update 2.0, that’s all you need to know about respeccing in Cyberpunk 2077.