- Released
- 21 September 2023, free, five days before Phantom Liberty.
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S; later also Nintendo Switch 2 and Mac. Not PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
- Needs Phantom Liberty?
- No. CD Projekt says the changes apply to the base game for all players, free of charge.
- PC storage
- An SSD is required from this update on; CD Projekt advises against a hard drive or, on Steam Deck, an SD card.
Before and after
| System | Before 2.0 | Since 2.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Perks | Large trees of small percentage bonuses. | Fewer perks with more impact, some unlocking whole abilities: Overclock for netrunners, Bolt shots for Tech weapons, Adrenaline Rush for Body builds. Each perk can be refunded individually for free; there is no longer a reset-all. |
| Skills | Twelve skills, each tied to an attribute. | Five skills (Headhunter, Netrunner, Shinobi, Solo, Engineer), not limited by attribute level. They grant a passive bonus every 5 levels, up to level 60. |
| Armour | Mostly from clothing, with mod slots. | Mostly from cyberware. Clothing is mostly cosmetic, has no mod slots, and only some pieces give bonuses. |
| Cyberware | Limited by slots. | Limited by Cyberware Capacity. Implants are attuned to an attribute and grow stronger with it, and are upgraded at the ripperdoc. |
| Item quality | Common to Legendary rarity. | Tiers 1 to 5++. Crafting and upgrading use one kind of component, and apart from cyberware only Iconic weapons can be upgraded. |
| Enemies and loot | Set by district. | All NPCs and loot scale to your level; difficulty no longer depends on where you are. Regular NPCs lost their resistances, and some archetypes carry low, medium or high armour. |
| Police | Officers popped up around you, often out of sight; no chases. | The NCPD patrols, chases on foot and by car, sets roadblocks and sends MaxTac by AV at high Wanted Levels. Officers can be quickhacked. |
| Driving | No combat from vehicles. | Shoot pistols and SMGs from the driver's seat, use health items, fight with melee on motorbikes; some vehicles carry mounted weapons. Tyres can be shot or slashed. |
| Buying cars | Fixers texted offers. | The AUTOFIXER netpage on V's computer, or terminals at gas stations and repair shops. |
| Consumables | No charges; sprinting, sliding and jumping cost stamina. | Health items and grenades have charges that refill over time. Stamina drains only when attacking, not when sprinting, sliding or jumping. |
| Netrunning | Breach Protocol could be used on enemies. | No more Breach Protocol on enemies. New perks let you upload quickhacks with Health when RAM runs out (Overclock) and queue several on one target. |
If you load a save from before 2.0
Your perks come back as points
Every perk point you had spent is refunded, so you can rebuild the character in the new trees before you carry on.
One free attribute reset
You may redistribute your attribute points once. CD Projekt's REDstreams recap of August 2023 adds that this single reset is offered to everyone, new playthroughs included.
Old skills carry over
Progress in the old skills is moved to their new counterparts among the five.
Cyberware is explained in a side quest
A side quest introduces the new cyberware system to players continuing an old save. Old weapon mods are removed and replaced by random new mods in your backpack, of a quality that depends on your level.
Remove old mods first
CD Projekt strongly advised uninstalling pre-2.0 mods, which can break the game. On Steam you can still roll back to version 1.63 if you need the old game.
Also added in 2.0
- Three radio stations: 89.7 Growl FM with songs by the community and a DJ voiced by Sasha Grey, Impulse 99.9 with songs remixed by Idris Elba, and 107.5 Dark Star for electronic music.
- Smoke grenades, new melee finishers, a Thermal Katana, and weapon mods that cannot be replaced once installed. A new mod is crafted from two mods of lower quality.
- A redesigned quest journal with jobs in separate tabs, a new phone screen, simpler tooltips with stat bars, and a minimap that zooms out with speed.
- Better traffic: NPC cars change lanes, pedestrians avoid moving cars, and some drivers fight back when you hijack them.
- New progression shards for attributes, carrying capacity and cyberware capacity.
Plan a build before you play
CD Projekt runs a free Build Planner on cyberpunk.net with the 2.0 trees and the Relic tree from Phantom Liberty. Its own developers shared three example builds there: the Bullet-Time Ninja, the Hack-&-Slash Netrunner and the Savage Slugger Solo.
Cross-checked
Cross-checked on 7 October 2026 against CD Projekt RED's Steam announcements (the Update 2.0 notes of 21 September 2023, the Build Planner post of 14 September 2023, the REDstreams recap of 26 August 2023 and the feature post of 22 August 2023), the official Update 2.3 FAQ for the platforms, PowerPyx's pre-2.0 trophy guide for the old twelve skills, and Game8's 2.0 guides to the police and to clothing and armour. Not from a playthrough: nobody here has played it.