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Cyberpunk 2077 is a single-player open-world action-adventure RPG from CD PROJEKT RED. You play V, a mercenary building a reputation in Night City, a fictional megacity ruled by corporate power, spectacle and body modification. You can fight openly, attack from range, move through stealth, hack opponents and systems, and develop V with weapons, perks, skills and cyberware. Phantom Liberty is a separate spy-thriller expansion set in Night City’s walled-off Dogtown district; the Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition bundles it with the base game.
Cyberpunk 2077 at a glance
- Genre: Open-world action-adventure RPG designed primarily as a single-player experience.
- Player character: V, a mercenary trying to survive and make a name in Night City.
- Core activities: Story missions, side work, exploration, combat, stealth, hacking, equipment upgrades and character development.
- Setting: Night City, a fictional megalopolis that ranges from corporate skyscrapers to the desert-like Badlands.
- Expansion: Phantom Liberty adds a spy-thriller campaign, the Dogtown district, extra gigs and dynamic missions, and an exclusive Relic skill tree.
- Bundled starting option: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition contains the base game and Phantom Liberty. Platform and format availability differ by market.
The important distinction for a newcomer is that Cyberpunk 2077 is not simply a shooting gallery with a neon skin. Its missions and open world are built around choosing an approach, shaping V’s abilities and deciding which parts of Night City to pursue.
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What is Cyberpunk 2077?
A story about V’s survival and ambitions
At the beginning, V is a mercenary taking jobs in Night City and trying to turn dangerous work into a reputation. The opening story involves a major theft: an implant associated with immortality. After the heist, an experimental prototype becomes embedded in V and is connected to Johnny Silverhand. That premise gives the campaign its immediate pressure without requiring a new player to know the wider history of the setting.
The game presents this setup through a large sequence of missions rather than a linear corridor. You decide which jobs to accept, which parts of the city to investigate and how to handle situations. The consequences and revelations of the story are best discovered in play, so a first explanation should stop at the initial premise rather than describe later twists.
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- DISCOVER UPDATE 2.0: Experience new and overhauled gameplay mechanics to fulfill your wildest cyberpunk fantasies. The free Update 2.0 brings brand new ways to play Cyberpunk 2077, including totally redesigned perks and cyberware systems, pulsating vehicle combat and car chases, a revamped police system, enhanced enemy combat AI, and more.
- CREATE YOUR OWN CYBERPUNK: Become an urban outlaw equipped with cybernetic enhancements and build your legend on the streets of Night City. · EXPLORE THE CITY OF THE FUTURE: Night City is packed to the brim with things to do, places to see, and people to meet. And it’s up to you where to go, when to go, and how to get there.
- BUILD YOUR LEGEND: Go on daring adventures and build relationships with unforgettable characters whose fates are shaped by the choices you make. · EQUIPPED WITH NEXT-GEN FEATURES: Immerse yourself in Night City like never before thanks to faster load times, improved visual and gameplay features, ray tracing and dynamic 4K support, and more.
- CLAIM EXCLUSIVE ITEMS: Claim in-game swag & digital goodies inspired by CD PROJEKT RED games as part of the My Rewards program.
- PHYSICAL EDITION GOODIES: The physical version of Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition includes an exclusive set of stickers and a rewards leaflet with a Wild Hunt Jacket and a Scorch Pistol!
An RPG as well as an action game
V is not locked into one permanent class. Character development uses skills and perks, while weapons and body-enhancing implants can be upgraded over time. That means the same mission can support different solutions: a direct gunfight, a carefully chosen long-range attack, a quiet infiltration or a plan built around hacking.
Those approaches can overlap. Choosing stealth does not prevent you from carrying powerful weapons, and investing in cyberware does not force you to abandon hacking or ranged combat. The publisher describes these as available playstyles, not mutually exclusive classes with one correct choice.
What is Night City?
A fictional megalopolis you actively navigate
Night City is the game’s fictional city and its central organizing idea. CD PROJEKT RED’s overview describes a large open world full of places to visit, people to meet and secrets to discover. You choose destinations and routes instead of moving through a sequence of levels selected for you.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThe city is designed to feel like an active environment rather than a backdrop between missions. A job can take you through crowded urban districts, quieter industrial spaces or the outskirts, and the route you choose changes what you see and which opportunities you encounter. Exploration is therefore part of the role-playing: V is a resident and working mercenary in this city, not a visitor who only appears for cutscenes.
Corporate towers and the Badlands
One useful way to understand Night City’s range is to compare Corpo Plaza with the Badlands. Corpo Plaza represents the city’s corporate high-rises, where wealth, surveillance and institutional power dominate the skyline. The Badlands sit outside the dense urban core and provide a starkly different landscape and rhythm.
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- THE ULTIMATE CYBERPUNK 2077 EXPERIENCE - Includes the critically acclaimed spy thriller expansion Phantom Liberty
- CREATE YOUR OWN CYBERPUNK
- Explore the city of the future – you decide when you want to go where and how to get there
- Decide how the story ends – your choices in the main game as well as in the spy thriller adventure Phantom Liberty lead to a complex web of consequences
This contrast matters because the setting is not one uniform neon district. The game uses different neighborhoods and surrounding areas to show competing interests, lifestyles and levels of security. You can move between them according to the job, the people you want to meet or the secrets you want to investigate.
Why the setting changes how the game feels
Night City’s scale gives the RPG room for contrasting moods. A high-profile corporate assignment, a tense meeting in an isolated location and a street-level job can all feel like different kinds of work even though they belong to the same campaign. The city’s geography also supports the game’s central question: what kind of mercenary will V become in a place where bodies, identities and loyalties can be modified?
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Take jobs and explore between missions
You spend your time moving through Night City, meeting characters, following story assignments and taking on additional work. The open-world structure lets you choose when to follow the main thread and when to investigate another district. The game’s official description emphasizes freedom to choose where to go and how to get there, so exploration is not merely an optional sightseeing mode.
Side activities matter because they let you see different parts of the city and test V’s capabilities outside the main storyline. A player who prefers action can seek confrontations, while someone interested in infiltration or systems manipulation can approach situations more cautiously.
Choose a combat approach
- Direct combat: Use weapons in an open confrontation when speed and force are the priority.
- Ranged attacks: Keep distance and build a style around attacking from farther away.
- Stealth: Avoid drawing attention and look for a quieter route through a situation.
- Hacking: Use hacking skills as part of your plan instead of relying only on firearms.
- Cyberware-focused development: Invest in body-enhancing implants that change what V can do.
These are starting directions rather than boxes. You can combine them as your skills, perks, weapons and implants develop. There is no publisher-designated best build in the overview; the useful choice is the approach that matches how you want to solve problems.
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![Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition - Nintendo Switch 2 [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41R5kouU7PL._SL160_.jpg)
- A Nintendo Switch Online membership may be required for online play. Please check the game detail page on Nintendo.com for membership requirements.
- 2025 CD PROJEKT S.A. All rights reserved. CD PROJEKT, the CD PROJEKT logo, the REDengine logo, Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2077, the Cyberpunk 2077 logo, Johnny Silverhand, the SAMURAI logo, Phantom Liberty and the Phantom Liberty logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of CD PROJEKT S.A. in the US and/or other countries. All other copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Improve V and V’s equipment
Progression has several layers. Skills and perks shape what V is capable of, weapons can be upgraded, and cyberware provides another route for specialization. Thinking in terms of a complete loadout is more useful than choosing one weapon and ignoring everything else: your abilities, equipment and preferred method of entering a mission work together.
If you are new to the game, treat early investments as experiments. Try a loud encounter, a long-range option, a stealth attempt and a hacking-oriented solution before deciding which combination feels natural. The game is built to support varied approaches, so you do not need to predict a perfect character plan before starting.
Platform-specific controls
The Switch 2 version documents motion and gyro controls, mouse support and touchscreen features. Those controls are specific to that release and should not be assumed to exist on PC, PlayStation or Xbox versions. Choose the control scheme that fits your hardware, but compare versions on expansion support and edition contents first.
Is Phantom Liberty a separate game?
It is an expansion, not a replacement for the base game
Phantom Liberty is a paid expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. It does not stand in for the base game; a package that contains only Phantom Liberty is not the complete starting purchase. The expansion adds a substantial spy-thriller storyline, but it is built for players who also have Cyberpunk 2077.
What Phantom Liberty adds
The expansion takes V to Dogtown, a walled-off district of Night City. Its additions include a spy narrative, extra gigs, dynamic missions and an exclusive Relic skill tree. Dogtown gives the expansion its own identity while remaining connected to V’s wider story and the city’s conflicts.
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- CREATE YOUR OWN CYBERPUNK - Become an urban outlaw equipped with cybernetic enhancements and build your legend on the streets of Night City.
- EXPLORE THE CITY OF THE FUTURE - Night City is packed to the brim with things to do, places to see, and people to meet. And it’s up to you where to go, when to go, and how to get there.
- BUILD YOUR LEGEND - Go on daring adventures and build relationships with unforgettable characters whose fates are shaped by the choices you make.
- DECIDE HOW THE STORY ENDS - Your choices in the base game and the spy-thriller adventure Phantom Liberty create interweaving webs of consequences, ones that shape the fate of the characters around you — and your own.
- CLAIM EXCLUSIVE ITEMS - Claim in-game swag & digital goodies inspired by CD PROJEKT RED games as part of the My Rewards program.
That combination makes Phantom Liberty most useful after you have decided that you want more of Cyberpunk 2077’s systems and world. If your goal is simply to understand the base game, you can start with the standalone game and add the expansion later where your platform supports it. If you already want the complete current package, a bundle is the more straightforward route.
Where Phantom Liberty is supported
CD PROJEKT RED’s previous-generation support notice states that Phantom Liberty is for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and is not available on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. The notice follows the game’s post-Patch 1.6 platform cutoff. Check the current store listing for any other platform before purchasing, because compatibility and edition listings can change.
| Platform | Phantom Liberty support | What to verify before buying |
|---|---|---|
| PC | Supported | Edition contents and the hardware requirements shown in the current listing |
| PlayStation 5 | Supported | Whether the listing is the base game or an edition that includes the expansion |
| Xbox Series X|S | Supported | Whether the listing includes Phantom Liberty |
| PlayStation 4 | Phantom Liberty is not supported | Do not buy this platform expecting access to the expansion |
| Xbox One | Phantom Liberty is not supported | Do not buy this platform expecting access to the expansion |
| Switch 2 | The Ultimate Edition includes the base game and Phantom Liberty | Confirm the current regional listing and whether you want a physical card or digital download |
Which Cyberpunk 2077 edition should you start with?
Choose by platform first
Start with the hardware you actually own. If you have a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, you can play the base game version sold for that system, but Phantom Liberty is not supported there. On PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, you can choose a package that includes the expansion. Switch 2 has its own Ultimate Edition release.
Choose whether you want the expansion now
If you want only the original campaign, look for a base-game listing and read the product title carefully. If you want the base game and Phantom Liberty together, look for Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. CD PROJEKT RED’s November 21, 2023 announcement describes that bundle for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The Switch 2 Ultimate Edition was announced on June 5, 2025 and contains both games’ content as a physical 64 GB game card or a digital download.
Choose physical or digital format
Format is a separate decision from content. The Switch 2 Ultimate Edition offers a physical 64 GB card and a digital option. On other platforms, physical Ultimate Edition releases are available in select markets, while local stock and storefront listings vary. Confirm the exact edition, platform and region at the time of purchase rather than assuming that every box or download includes Phantom Liberty.
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- Included is the following: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition for PlayStation 5 PS5, 2 pack of PremGear 2 Sizes Thumbsticks made to increase accuracy and comfort (1 High-Rise, 1 Mid-Rise), PremGear Quality Cleaning Cloth
- DISCOVER UPDATE 2.0: Experience new and overhauled gameplay mechanics to fulfill your wildest cyberpunk fantasies. The free Update 2.0 brings brand new ways to play Cyberpunk 2077, including totally redesigned perks and cyberware systems, pulsating vehicle combat and car chases, a revamped police system, enhanced enemy combat AI, and more
- CREATE YOUR OWN CYBERPUNK: Become an urban outlaw equipped with cybernetic enhancements and build your legend on the streets of Night City
- EXPLORE THE CITY: Night City is packed to the brim with things to do, places to see, and people to meet. And it’s up to you where to go, when to go, and how to get there
- BUILD YOUR LEGEND: Go on daring adventures and build relationships with unforgettable characters whose fates are shaped by the choices you make
A simple purchase checklist
- Identify your exact platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S or Switch 2.
- Decide whether Phantom Liberty is part of your plan now or something you may add later.
- Read the full product title and contents, looking specifically for Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition or an explicit Phantom Liberty listing.
- For physical products, check the region and whether the package is a complete edition or a base-game disc or card with a separate download requirement.
- For digital products, confirm the store page matches your account’s region and your console generation.
Where should a first-time player begin?
Begin with the base game’s premise, not outside lore
You do not need to memorize the setting before starting. The opening establishes V’s work, the theft that drives the story and the connection to Johnny Silverhand. Let Night City’s districts and characters introduce the wider world as you play.
Try more than one approach early
Because the game supports direct combat, ranged attacks, stealth, hacking and cyberware-oriented development, use early missions to sample several methods. This helps you decide which skills, perks and equipment deserve attention without treating your first choice as irreversible.
Keep the edition decision separate from the role-playing decision
Your preferred V build has nothing to do with whether you buy the base game or Ultimate Edition. Edition choice is about platform, expansion access and physical-versus-digital format; playstyle choice is about how you want V to operate inside Night City. Make those decisions independently.
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Cyberpunk 2077 is a flexible open-world RPG about V’s life as a mercenary in Night City. Its appeal comes from the combination of a reactive-feeling city, a spoiler-sensitive character story and systems that let you solve encounters through force, distance, stealth, hacking or cyberware. Phantom Liberty is an expansion set in Dogtown, not a standalone substitute for the base game. For a complete start on supported hardware, Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is the package to look for; on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the expansion is not available, and every platform listing should be checked for current regional contents.
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