This comes up often enough in Cyberpunk 2077 that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

In most cases the straightforward approach works. The exceptions are specific and listed below.

The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

Worth knowing alongside this

Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of Cyberpunk 2077. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here.

It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one.

Why it works this way

Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

  • Note the exception cases — they are specific rather than vague.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.
  • Read the whole sequence once before doing the first step.
  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • If a menu path does not exist for you, your build is older or newer than the one described.

The practical answer

Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

What to do instead

There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters.

When the usual advice fails

Cyberpunk 2077 is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

Where people go wrong

  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.
  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.

Cyberpunk FAQ

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

What is the short answer?

It is the paragraph near the top. Everything after it exists for the cases where that paragraph does not quite fit.

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Why do people disagree about this?

Mostly because they are describing different versions. Version drift explains the majority of contradictory advice about Cyberpunk 2077.

That is the whole of it — if something here stops matching Cyberpunk 2077, the game changed, not the method.