Before diving into the Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty ending, it pulled me into so many great missions straight out of a spy novel. Mr. Hands is a great Fixer to work for, but Solomon Reed and Songbird are the true stars. As reached the end of this new story, all the impactful choices encouraged me to create a few manual saves.
I wanted to be able to go back to see the alternate choice without starting all over. After I watched the credits roll, I was happy to find out the ending I worked towards is considered the “best”. All 4 of the endings Phantom Liberty has to offer are not completely happy. Every single one requires some type of sacrifice.
Phantom Liberty Ending up like Agent 007
It was a thrilling ride to the end. I enjoyed completing the great Gigs for the elusive Mr. Hands. I developed more of a relationship with him than any of the other Fixers in the main game. The various missions were often multipart with several choices.
I managed to mostly complete things to his satisfaction, but other choices can easily annoy him. I did not look into what consequence there might be to really screwing up his Gigs though. It would be a nice touch if he put a hit out on the main character, but someone else can test that.
When it came to working with Solomon Reed and Songbird, it was a great tug of war of who to trust between the two. Adding their old team member Alex to the mix also added to the paranoia. That distrust definitely played out in the various endings.
Casino Royale Style
Before the biggest choices broke up the band, I enjoyed some of the covert actions clearly inspired by James Bond. Some real standouts were sneaking into a high profile party. There was a whole impressive stage performance, followed by a game of roulette with hackers I was meant to steal identities from.
There was even a visit from what I thought was the big bad, Kurt Hansen. He almost channeled the bond villain schtick of trying to intimidate me, then letting me go instead of killing me like he should. Turns out he’d meet his demise well before the Phantom Liberty ending.
His mistake of letting us live allowed Alex and I to capture Kurt Hansen’s hacker twins, then take their place at the big meeting. What followed was Phantom Liberty’s take on the Mission Impossible advanced mask tech. We didn’t just impersonate their face and voice, but also their personalities.
It was fun checking their bio to ensure I picked actions and answered questions as they would. That was the mission where the path to the various endings diverged.
Choosing to Help Songbird
At the point where it’s time to hack the Neural Matrix with Songbird, it was time to decide whether to help or betray her. My first choice was to help her. She was the key to solving V’s Relic death sentence, so my choice was easy.
With my choice, Alex killed Kurt Hansen, then Songbird hacked the entire stadium. Her aim was for the two of us to escape clean. Reed and Alex were not too happy, but we were able to ditch them in the bowels of the stadium. Songbirds Blackwall protocol hack allowed me to direct her to hack things I could not.
I took out a group of enemies when she hacked a rotor blade on a crashed helicopter. It was a fire fight to escape, but her help eased our path. We eventually escaped via a storm drain and went our separate ways until she could contact me.
Spaceport Firefight
That was where the real fun started. I infiltrated a Spaceport, Cyberpunks version of a high tech airport. I used a stolen maintenance uniform to sneak my way through back areas of access. When I reunited with Songbird, we hid from the NUSA president’s troops and Reed.
Not too long after, all hell broke loose and the President’s troops attacked the Spaceport security to escalate the search for us. It was a mad fight against both groups to reach the tram to Songbird’s flight. At one point she tapped back into the Blackwall protocol and I synced up with her to help with the load.
Instead of quick hacks or shooting enemies, I could basically blast them with the Blackwall hack to fry them and anyone around them. It was a powerful feeling. On the tram, Songbird revealed her betrayal and how there’s only enough cure for one person.
That’s the point where the choice between two of the endings is made.
“Best” Phantom Liberty Ending – Decide to Help Songbird Despite Her Betrayal
I was in too deep with my playthrough for team Songbird, so I decided to continue helping her. Even when Reed confronted me one last time, I chose to put him down. At that point, I figured this was not the “best” ending. Reed was such a great character and I did not want to see him die.
I was wrong though, because my choices basically freed everyone from the clutches of the NUSA. Reed was no longer a slave to the government, Alex survived to a well deserved retirement and Songbird got her freedom with a cure. Johnny Silverhand approved of my choices for those reasons.
Songbird eventually sent me a thank you reward of her Cyberdeck and I enjoyed a toast with Alex to see her off. I completed a few more Phantom Liberty side missions after the credits rolled, so I’m glad this is considered the “best” ending. I’d hate to go back and redo those supplemental missions.
Hand Over Songbird to Reed at the Spaceport
When I wanted to try handing over Songbird at the Spaceport, I realized I forgot to make a manual save after all that battling to the Tram. I was not looking forward to fighting through all that again. Lucky for me, Cyberpunk 2077 created at auto save at the perfect spot.
This time I handed over Songbird to Reed and airships swooped in to pick them up. He promised to contact me later with information on the cure from the Neural Matrix. Days later, Reed summoned me for a meeting where he was taking off for a road trip.
It was nice to have a little wrap up moment of everything that went down. From there, I had a choice to call for the NUSA airship to pick me up for the surgery for the cure. It was fitting that choice happened at the same roof above Misty’s where the main game ending paths diverge.
Choosing Phantom Liberty Cure Ending
Choosing not to take the cure just dovetails right back into the end choice of the main story. I’ve been there and done that, so I chose the cure. There’s an option to contact friends before leaving, but then it’s off to surgery and the NUSA hospital.
I was surprised how long this alternate ending went on. After waking up in the hospital with Reed standing over the bed, it was time for the good news and bad news. Good news is the cure worked, but the bad news it came at a very high cost.
The procedure caused so much damage that combat Cyberware was no longer an option. That meant V’s merc days were all but over. Recovery time also took years, much longer than anticipated. Trying to call friends after all that time did not go so well.
It was clear it was a fairly depressing ending compared to my first finish. I figured that was it right there, but no, the ending continued. After returning to Night City, I was able to reconnect with everyone’s favorite Ripper Doc, Viktor Vektor.
I was shocked to see how Misty’s shop and Vik’s lab changed so much. He went corporate and Misty left. I did have a chance to reconnect with her before credits rolled, but it was all a very somber ending. I loved how Phantom Liberty fleshed out alternate endings so much, even for what seems like a really bad ending.
Choosing to Betray Songbird
I made sure to make a manual save right before the sequence to hack the Neural Matrix with Songbird. I fully expected to go back to see what betraying her in that section resulted in. Trying to hack Songbird at Reed’s request was quite a mistake.
She tapped into the Blackwall protocol and went crazy. In the chaos, Alex was killed by Kurt Hansen and Songbird escaped. I had to fight through the stadium again, but this time without Songbird’s help. It was definitely a bit tougher.
The upside (or downside depending on your perspective) was I was able to face of with Kurt Hansen myself. He was quick and dangerous, with devastating melee attacks. I used my implants to keep my distance and use quick hacks.
When he was stationary for a bit, I’d hit him with my smart gun and use my Overclock ability to tap into health to use more quick hacks. It took a few attempts (I died), but I was happy to finally take him out. From there it was a mad dash.
It was great to sprint to the open car door Reed left for me as he drifted into the parking garage. We escaped in that car and went on a hunt for Songbird. We’d here chatter that MaxTac was inbound to hunt a Cyber psycho. We knew that was Songbird.
Taking on MaxTac
After witnessing MaxTac taking So Mi into custody, the planning started. I had the option to contact one of the fixers I know to get info on how we could ambush MaxTac. I loved how this whole path felt so different from my original.
Once we completed the preparation for our ambush, it was time to actually fight MaxTac. It required a lot of running and gunning. Reed would tag one of the 4 members of Max with a special rifle to disrupt their Cyberware. It was as tough as Kurt Hansen, but I got it done.
I knew Songbird was not going to come easily and I was right. She took control of the MaxTac vehicle and led us on a chase before crashing into a building. That building happened to lead to an underground Cynosure facility. Cynosure is the company behind the Neural Matrix that started the whole mess.
Cynosure Lab Phantom Liberty Ending
I loved how unique the facility was, gameplay wise. It was not long before an attack robot was hunting me through the facility like Alien Isolation. I could not defeat it, so my only choice was to run and hide. There were times I had to activate switches while also listening for the robot nearby.
It was a tense bit of gameplay that I was happy mostly followed a pattern with only a few “oops” deaths. Once it came to a final confrontation with that robot, I was relieved there was no boss fight. My running and hiding was enough.
Instead, Songbird froze the robot and pulled me into her mind. It was trippy to see her early days as a Netrunner with her friends. It was all the fun times she had before Reed recruited her. It was a nice window into her personal life.
After that bit came the next crucial choice that would decide which of the last 2 endings I get.
End So Mi’s Suffering
After escaping So Mi’s mind, she begged me to kill her as she lacked the strength to do it herself. The Blackwall turned her into a shell of herself. I agreed to that mercy and ended her life. Reed was not pleased, but he understood. We were then tasked with delivering her body to NUSA
It was a nice calm drive across the southern border where a NUSA convoy took over a whole lane. I like how it was government controlled area littered with agents. Drop ships came down to pick up So Mi’s body and another carrying the president. I like the spectacle of it all. Fitting ending type of thing.
The President was not very happy her weapon of mass destruction was dead. She threw some creds my way and may as well have flipped me off. Not a great ending and Reed pretty much agreed with me. It was time to try the final ending.
Refusing to End So Mi’s Life
This time I refused to help Songbird end her life. The events after the choice were very similar to choosing to help her die. We went to the border, but this time, the President was very pleased. She even gave me a medal. Although you could confuse this with a goodish ending, it’s not.
When you really think about it, the President got what she wanted, but the rest of the crew did not. Reed was going to be stuck with a boring office job. So Mi was basically a Blackwall zombie. Her and Reed were basically slaves to the NUSA. Alex was dead and the “cure” for V we know is bad.
In this case, I saved the worst for last. Even though each of the endings had at least one bad thing, I was impressed how fleshed out each of them was. The one silver lining is tech I found in the Cynosure lab led to a nice little Netrunner side mission to acquire a Blackwall Cyberdeck.
Crafting and installing that let me use a smaller version of the Blackwall quick hack from the Spaceport ending. A bit of silver lining.
Phantom Liberty Continues After Rolling Credits
Even after the Phantom Liberty ending credits rolled, it was time for some reflection with Johnny about the choices made for that ending. That is except for the ending where Johnny is no more. Each of the endings have some type of reward to claim. The real icing on the cake is the final mission from Mr. Hands.
He asks V to intervene in choosing who Kurt Hansen’s successor would be to run Dogtown. There’s more choices of who to back, kill or spare. It also uses the great persona swapping tech used in the main mission. I enjoyed pretending to be a Cuban drug lord.
It was fun to intimidate both of the possible replacements. I then was able to confront them both at Hansen’s funeral. The chance for an Epilogue was a welcome one to put a bow on a fantastic DLC. Phantom Liberty is the best DLC I’ve played since Blood and Wine.
It’s a shame how the Phantom Liberty DLC often hints at a future moon mission, but Cyberpunk 2077 development officially ended. I’ll have to wait until the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel for more. Despite the original Cyberpunk 2077 launch struggles, I’ll definitely preorder a sequel.