Highlights
- Phantom Liberty introduces a new district for players to explore in Cyberpunk 2077's Night City, along with an emphasis on player choice that affects the endings.
- Choosing to side with Songbird in the Firestarter questline leads to an ending where V helps her escape to Luna while siding with Reed results in the treatment that removes the Relic, starting V's life over as a normal human.
- The different endings in Phantom Liberty have their pros and cons, with saving So Mi with Reed being seen as the "good ending," but the game's overall tone questions if the reward is worth the cost.
Spoilers Ahead for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Now that its rather hefty post-launch support is out, the era of Cyberpunk 2077 is coming to a close. CD Projekt Red had remained loyal to its futuristic action RPG in order to fix the promises it didn't live up to back when it launched three years ago and to add a nice bow on top of these improvements, a DLC expansion known as Phantom Liberty gives players an entirely new district of Night City to explore.
Cyberpunk 2077 has a brand-new emphasis on player choice that affects every part of its endings in Phantom Liberty, however, that may leave players confused about how to get the "best" ending, or how to get their favorite against all the others. One possible ending only has one outcome, and the other option has multiple different variations that make the most of V's actions down to the very last moment of the DLC. Choosing between the two comes down to whether players want to side with Reed or choose to work with Songbird during the Firestarter quest.
What Happens When V Sides With Songbird
If players make the choice to rely on Songbird in the Firestarter main story questline, Songbird will still be corrupted by the Blackwall, but remain strong as she vows to support V if things get dangerous while they make their escape. Eventually, So Mi will collapse, and it'll be up to V to carry her to her destination—a shuttle heading towards the Luna moon that will allow her to leave her life behind as an FIA agent and start fresh, provided she survives the trip.
On the way out, players will eventually be stopped by Solomon Reed, and the choices are to either give up So Mi or shoot Reed dead then and there. Shooting Reed leads to the ending where Songbird gets to fly in the shuttle to Luna, but assisting Reed guarantees that V gets the treatment that gets rid of the Relic once and for all. While it actually frees V from the biochip, unlike Cyberpunk 2077's base game endings, V loses everything from personal items to their compatibility with cyberware and fighting ability, starting their life completely over as a normal human.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and Solomon Reed's Branching Endings
Siding with Reed, however, could be seen as Phantom Liberty's "true" ending, as it differs depending on V's choices for the duration of the quest that follows after players choose to back up Solomon's plan. Once the option to support Reed instead of Songbird is chosen, the game takes a dramatic tonal shift with a Blackwall-possessed Songbird helping turn the action RPG into something more like a horror game. V is left to speak to So Mi through projections of her memory and life, and eventually discuss how her life had gone, even offering players the chance to hug Songbird if they wish, as she tries to fight the Blackwall AIs controlling her.
After So Mi is found in the core of the Cynosure facility, she tells V that she's fading beyond the Blackwall. From here, Songbird asks V to kill her to free her from their grasp, and players can choose to either honor that wish or keep So Mi alive. Both answers lead to the same type of ending in Phantom Liberty but with different connotations and rewards. Killing So Mi will upset Reed, who quickly comes in from behind, but if players choose to keep her alive, Reed will help carry her to safety instead. Dead or alive, Reed and V report to the FIA, who take So Mi's body into custody.
While Songbird's body is essentially taken to the same location, the ending does differ in huge ways. If So Mi is dead, the FIA take her to give her a proper burial as an agent, and Myers respectfully tells V off for making an unjustified call about So Mi's life. After a talk with Reed, he and V go their separate ways, and the rest of Cyberpunk 2077 begins. However, if Songbird is still alive, the situation with Rosalind Myers goes over far better, with V being given a medal, and then being relieved of duty as an FIA agent on respectful terms. Reed also contacts V a bit later to say that So Mi has made a good recovery, and seems to be looking into going back to working for the FIA.
All of these endings certainly have their pros and cons to them, meaning that players have their work cut out for them when it comes to deciding which one they want to take. Saving So Mi from herself with Reed appears to be what could be described as "the good ending," but the long-awaited new ending to the full Cyberpunk 2077 game is far bleaker in comparison, almost begging to ask where Songbird went at the end. Compared to the other endings where V never truly escaped the Relic, finally having an ending where it's gone is great closure, but as expected from the morally gray world of Cyberpunk, it asks fans if the reward is truly worth what it cost, keeping with the game's overall tone in a poignant way.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
