Currently, in CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, players can use cyberware technologies to turn their characters into near unstoppable killing machines with no downsides to doing so. While this certainly encourages players to have fun with Cyberpunk 2077's cyberware and customization, many players have been asking for things to be a bit more balanced in regard to the mechanic. The upcoming Phantom Liberty DLC aims to fix that.

Cyberpunk 2077 famously struggled to live up to expectations at launch. Over the last two and a half years, CD Projekt Red has released patches, updates, and smaller pieces of downloadable content to improve the game, and recent user reviews show that players definitely like what adjustments have been made. However, not all the issues were fixed, as problems with combat, police behavior, and the lack of balance towards cyberware remained. Now, these changes are finally coming in September.

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How Phantom Liberty Adds Weight and Consequence to Cyberware

Throughout the story of Cyberpunk, V is battling with an engram installed into their head by a Relic biochip that was implanted into them in a moment of desperation. The game explores how these futuristic changes to one's body can leave a lasting toll, especially as many endings of Cyberpunk 2077 deal with V having to come to terms with only having six months left to live after everything's said and done.

It's understandable why players would want there to be consequences for the amount of augmentations they can take, because going without them almost makes the core themes of Cyberpunk 2077 fall flat. However, just as Phantom Liberty possibly gives V an out from their situation through Songbird, the game is changing rather drastically to not only fix this oversight, but to make it so players will definitely need to think if these changes are what they want. This is emphasized through new events, and even debuffs that can occur from upgrading V too heavily.

How Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Reworks Cyberware

Before players understand the reworks to cyberware itself, it should be understood that once Phantom Liberty goes live, the mechanical changes to V will be seen as armor, because clothing becomes mostly only for cosmetic appearances. As fans add onto the amount of cyberware they have, they'll discover a new cyberware capacity in Cyberpunk 2077 they can hit which will lower their HP and potentially even cause cyberpsychosis. Many fans believe these changes to the game to be inspired by the anime adaptation by Studio TRIGGER, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

So far, it isn't entirely clear just what playing on a massive cyberware-centered build will be like, and how much the debuffs will affect V. However, upgrading V comes at possibly a mental cost to the player as well, as a new feature Phantom Liberty's update will add is the ability to see exactly what the Ripperdoc does to V with every upgrade. This will remain in the standard first-person view, adding immersion to the installation of cyberware which may make some players think twice before going under the knife.

All of this works incredibly well with V's struggle with the Relic biochip, and may play into the new ending Phantom Liberty plans to add. This is also only one aspect of Cyberpunk 2077's many reworks and adjustments that are being made to the base game for free alongside Phantom Liberty. For those who stuck with CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077 since the beginning, or even for those planning to get the game after these changes go into effect, things are about to get very intense come September.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty launches on September 26, 2023, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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