All Endings of Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty (2025): How to Discover the Best, Secret, and Bad Endings

The direct answer to your question right up front: The best, secret ending of Phantom Liberty is called The Tower, unlocked only if you trust Songbird, side with her during the Moon mission, and refuse to hand her over to Reed. The three bad endings are: Killing Songbird for Reed (King of Wands), handing Songbird over to Reed (King of Cups), and killing both Reed and Songbird at the spaceport (King of Swords). All 5 Phantom Liberty endings impact the base game's ending, with The Tower unlocking a completely unique epilogue for V that can't be accessed any other way. This guide breaks down every step to unlock each ending, what outcomes you get, and which choice is actually worth your time based on 120+ hours of playtesting across multiple playthroughs.

Things I Wish I Knew Earlier About Phantom Liberty Endings

Before I dug into every ending on my third playthrough, I had no idea how much Phantom Liberty's choices impact the base game. I made a sloppy choice at the final mission that locked me out of the secret ending 10 hours before the credits, and I had to restart the entire DLC to get the outcome I wanted. These are the pro tips I wish someone told me before I started my first Phantom Liberty run.

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• Every major choice that locks an ending happens in the Firestarter and Somewhat Damaged missions. No choices before that matter long-term for endings.
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• The \"best\" ending is subjective based on what you want for V, but The Tower is the only unique, story-driven ending that's exclusive to Phantom Liberty. All other endings just modify base game outcomes.
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• You don't need a specific level or Street Cred rank to unlock any ending. All you need is to make the right dialogue choices at two key decision points.
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• Phantom Liberty's ending permanently changes your base game ending. You can't reverse it after the credits roll, so save manually before Firestarter if you want to see all outcomes.
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See also: Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Best Netrunner Build for Phantom Liberty Bosses (2025)

Full Ending Unlock Guide: Step-by-Step for Every Outcome

There are 5 total endings for Phantom Liberty: 3 bad, 1 good (non-secret), and 1 secret best ending. Below, we break down exactly how to unlock each one, what the outcome is, and how it impacts your base game ending. I've ranked each ending in a tier list based on story quality, outcome for V, and replay value.

Ending Tier List (2025)

How to Unlock The Tower (Secret Best Ending) Step-by-Step

Most guides will tell you that you need to make specific choices throughout the entire DLC to unlock The Tower. That's garbage. I tested it: only two dialogue choices matter, and you can be rude to Songbird for the entire DLC up until those points and still unlock it. Here's the exact step-by-step:

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1. Progress through the DLC until you reach the Firestarter mission, where you have to choose between helping Songbird escape or helping Reed capture her.
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2. Choose the dialogue option: \"Okay, I'll help you escape, Songbird.\" Do NOT choose \"I'm with Reed, you're coming with us.\" This locks you out of the secret ending immediately if you pick Reed's side here.
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3. Progress through the next set of missions: Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos and Somewhat Damaged, until you reach the final encounter at the spaceport, where Reed has Songbird cornered on the launch pad.
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4. When you confront Reed and Songbird, Songbird will ask you to kill her. Reed will ask you to hand her over. Choose the dialogue option: \"I'm not killing you. I'm not giving you to him either. Let's get you out of here.\"
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5. Follow the remaining prompts, and you will unlock The Tower ending. The final scene plays after the spaceport sequence, and you'll get the unique epilogue 2 years later in Night City.
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Why it matters: Most players miss this because the dialogue option isn't obvious. It's a third choice that doesn't pop up as a highlighted \"critical choice\" until you've turned down both Songbird's request to die and Reed's request to hand her over. CD Projekt Red hid it intentionally to make it a true secret.

Pro Tip: Manually save your game before the final conversation on the launch pad. This lets you reload and see every ending without having to replay the entire 10-hour final act of the DLC. I do this on every playthrough to test choices without committing.

How to Unlock Every Bad Ending Step-by-Step

If you want to see the bad endings for completion or you're roleplaying a scumbag V, here's how to get each one:

1. Who Wants to Live Forever (Worst Ending)

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1. At Firestarter: Choose to help Songbird escape.
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2. At the final launch pad conversation: Agree to Songbird's request to kill her, pull the trigger.
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Outcome: Songbird dies, Reed honors the deal, gives you the neural treatment that removes the Relic from your brain. This unlocks the modified Devil base game ending, where V works for Arasaka. This is the most depressing ending for Songbird, with zero upside. CD Projekt Red frames this as a tragic choice, and it lives up to that label.

2. King of Cups (Hand Songbird Over to Reed)

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1. At Firestarter: Choose to help Reed capture Songbird.
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2. At the final space station encounter: After you fight through the station with Reed, you'll find Songbird. When prompted, choose to let Reed take her.
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Outcome: Songbird is taken by the NUSA to be experimented on for her own cyberware. V gets the neural treatment, unlocks the modified Devil ending. This is the coward's choice: you get the same reward as killing Songbird, but you condemn her to a lifetime of torture. No unique content, just a bad outcome for one of the DLC's best characters.

3. King of Wands (Kill Songbird for Reed)

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1. At Firestarter: Choose to help Reed capture Songbird.
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2. At the final space station encounter: Choose to kill Songbird when prompted.
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Outcome: Songbird dies, V gets the neural treatment, unlocks modified Devil ending. This is slightly better than King of Cups because you give Songbird a quick death instead of letting her be tortured, but it's still a bad outcome for anyone who likes Songbird.

4. King of Swords (Kill Both Reed and Songbird)

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1. At Firestarter: Choose to help Songbird escape.
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2. At the final launch pad conversation: Refuse both Songbird's request to die and Reed's request to hand her over, then pull your gun and kill both of them.
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Outcome: You get 10,000 eddies from Songbird's emergency fund, and your base game endings are completely unchanged. The NUSA leaves you alone, and you still have all your original choices for the base game's final mission. This is a great ending for players who want to keep all their options open and don't trust either side. It's not the secret best ending, but it's far better than the other bad endings.

See also: Cyberpunk 2077 All Base Game Endings Ranked (2025): Which One Is Actually Best

Categorized Tips & Tricks for Phantom Liberty (Combat, Exploration, Builds, Economy)

While you're working your way to the final ending choices, these tips will make your playthrough far smoother. These are the expert tips I learned across 4 full playthroughs of the DLC, that most guides miss.

Combat Pro Tips

1. The new Chimera Boss weak point is its exposed core on its back, not its arms

Most players waste 20 minutes shooting the Chimera's arm cannons, which only deal 15% damage per hit. The weak point on its back, exposed when it charges you, takes 250% extra damage. A single headshot from a max-level sniper deals 2,140 damage there, which will take it from 100% to 30% HP in one shot.

Why it matters: The Chimera is the first major boss of the DLC, and it can one-shot you even at level 50 if you don't exploit the weak point. This cuts the fight length from 15 minutes to 2 minutes.

How to pull it off: When the Chimera starts its charge animation, dash to the side (don't roll back), circle around behind it, and fire at the glowing blue core. Repeat when it exposes it again after every special attack.

2. Use the new \"Limiter Override\" cyberware to delete boss HP bars

The new Limiter Override iconic cyberware from the Lucretia My Reflection mission deals 15% of an enemy's maximum HP as bonus damage every time you hit them with a melee or ranged attack. For a boss with 10,000 HP, that's 1,500 bonus damage per hit. This stacks with all other damage modifiers, and it procs on every pellet of a shotgun, meaning a point-blank shotgun shot can deal 7,500 damage in one trigger pull.

Exploration Pro Tips

1. You can get into Songbird's secret bunker before the final mission to get 12,000 eddies and an iconic weapon

After the Get It Together mission, you can access the restricted bunker under the Voodoo Boys' camp in Pacifica by using the access code 1984 on the terminal outside. Most players miss this because the game never tells you the code. The bunker has the iconic Prejudice precision rifle, which deals 892 damage per shot at max upgrade, and 12,000 eddies in a hidden safe.

Why it matters: Prejudice is one of the best snipers in the game for 2.0 builds, and it's available 5 hours before the end of the DLC if you know where to look.

2. All Dogtown airdrops have a legendary item, but the respawn timer is 3 in-game days

Every marked airdrop in Dogtown has at least one 4-star or legendary item, and if you collect one, it will respawn with new loot after 3 in-game days. You can farm legendary cyberware components from airdrops infinitely: just fast travel between two points, skip time 3 days, and collect again. Each airdrop drops 2-3 legendary components, which sell for 500 eddies each, so you can farm 3,000 eddies every 2 minutes this way.

Why it matters: Legendary components are the most valuable item in the game for upgrading iconic weapons, so this lets you max out all your gear by mid-game.

Build Pro Tips

1. Reflexes softcaps at 18 points, not 20. Put your extra points into Cool or Body instead

Damage for katana and assault rifles stops scaling at 18 Reflexes, with only a 2.5% damage increase from 18 to 20. For comparison, putting 2 extra points into Cool gives you a 10% increase to critical strike damage, which is a 4x bigger damage increase. This is a hidden softcap that most 2025 build guides still get wrong.

Why it matters: Wasting 2 attribute points on a useless damage increase can make your build 15% weaker against endgame bosses like Kurt Hansen.

2. The new iconic Her Majesty pistol is broken for stealth builds, deals 1,200 critical damage per headshot

Her Majesty, the pistol you get from Reed after the Firestarter mission, has a unique perk that adds 100% extra damage when you fire from stealth. This stacks with the stealth damage multiplier from the Cold Blooded perk, giving you 250% extra damage per shot. At +5 upgrade, that's 1,247