You should delete your Cyberpunk 2077 mods ahead of update 2.0, and you may need to do a clean reinstall of the game

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty cinematics

(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

I figured I was going to have to uninstall my Cyberpunk 2077 mods before checking out Phantom Liberty and update 2.0⁠. Most of the mods I went for on my last playthrough were difficulty and loot adjustments that'd clash with 2.0's big changes, and for the rest, mod authors would likely need to update their files to play nice with the patch. What I wasn't expecting was needing to do a clean reinstall⁠—complete with deleting some leftover files⁠—to clear up a persistent crash on startup.

I'm not sure exactly what borked my game, but big, foundational mod projects like Cyber Engine Tweaks need to be updated with each major patch in turn, and some users in the past have reported similar crash on startup issues to what I experienced. Mod author yamashi has noted on the mod's page that they will be working on a patch 2.0 version of Cyber Engine Tweaks in the coming days.

In the meantime, if you're a returning player, you may want to preemptively pull the nuclear option and do a clean install of Cyberpunk 2077 following CD Projekt's own instructions. The developer recommends:

First, backup your save files in user/Saved Games/CD Projekt Red/Cyberpunk 2077
Disable Steam or GOG's cloud save feature for the game (I forgot to do this but still cleared up my issue)
Uninstall Cyberpunk and delete the following folders:
The Cyberpunk 2077 folder in your Steam or GOG directory (ex: Seam/steamapps/common/Cyberpunk 2077)
user/Saved Games/CD Projekt Red/Cyberpunk 2077
user/AppData/Local/REDEngine
user/AppData/Local/CD Projekt Red
Restart your PC, reinstall the game, restore your saves, then reactivate cloud saves if you disabled them.

On the more qualitative side of things, the 2.0 update may change what kinds of mods you even want to have installed. The loot auto-leveling mod I was using has been outmoded by 2.0's new streamlined tier system for gear, and I've found late game fights to be plenty difficult without the mod I was using that'd set all enemy levels to three above my own. Those were band-aids for Cyberpunk's RPG system woes, while 2.0 is triage.

So give it a few days to a week for mod authors to update your favorite projects and, if you've modded up Cyberpunk, consider a clean install ahead of the curve to save yourself some heartbreak, troubleshooting, and a long download wait right when you're getting ready to dive in.

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Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.