CD Projekt is putting your Cyberpunk 2077 mods on ice to make sure they don't wreak havoc with Phantom Liberty
The studio wants to give modders a chance to update their work to be compatible with the DLC.
Fair warning, chooms, the release of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC means that CD Projekt's deckheads have temporarily geeked your installed mods in order to prevent, uh, mushis. I can't keep this up. Honestly, I'm just taking all these verbatim from a Cyberpunk slang wiki page. What am I even saying?
In plainer terms, a recent tweet from CD Projekt has announced that, when you boot up Phantom Liberty, any mods you have installed in your version of Cyberpunk will be automatically disabled in order to prevent them from misbehaving in the new version of the game.
Attention all Steam and Epic players!We wanted to let you know that mods will be automatically disabled for the launch of #PhantomLiberty. This is to prevent issues with the game that are caused by mods before they receive their update from the modding community. We want to…September 25, 2023
Interestingly, the tweet is only directed at Steam and Epic players, and not users who own the game via CD Projekt's own GOG platform. My own tinkering suggests this probably has something to do with CD Projekt's RED Launcher. On the Steam and Epic versions of Cyberpunk 2077, launching the game first brings up the launcher, giving you an opportunity to activate or deactivate any REDmod-compatible mods you have installed. On the other hand, my own GOG Galaxy version skips the launcher entirely, instead tucking a "Launch Cyberpunk with mods" option away in the client's "Additional executables" section.
I'm not sure if this means that GOG Galaxy players won't find their mods disabled, but I'd frankly be surprised if it did. I've reached out to CD Projekt to ask about this, and I'll update this piece if I hear back.
Regardless, don't fret if you're absolutely determined to go back to Night City with all your mods switched on, CD Projekt confirmed to GamesRadar that stubborn players will be able to reactivate their mods whenever they want, although they do so at their own risk. You're probably better off waiting, though: Phantom Liberty and Cyberpunk's 2.0 update has sent more than a few popular mods haywire, including the widespread Cyber Engine Tweaks framework that lots of mods rely on. Good things—and functioning games—come to those who wait.
Oh, and if you're not sure which mods are worth installing when they do finally get updated to work with the new DLC, we have a best Cyberpunk 2077 mods list to help you figure out just that. Handy or what, choom?