Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Relic Perks Guide: Finding Relic Points

Phantom Liberty slides a whole extra perk tree into Cyberpunk 2077. It's called the Relic, it sits in your character menu like a sixth attribute next to Body and Reflexes, and it ignores your level completely. XP never feeds it. The only thing it takes is Relic points, and there are exactly 15 of those in the entire game. Songbird gives you the first batch, and the rest wait inside yellow Militech data terminals tucked around Dogtown.

The neat part is the math. Every node in the tree put together costs exactly 15 points, so if you sweep up all the terminals, you finish with the whole thing maxed. Getting there is just a matter of knowing where to look.

Unlocking the Relic Tree

Getting Into Phantom Liberty

There are two ways in. On an existing save, you play the base game until the Pacifica stretch wraps up. Once the main job Transmission ends (the sit-down with the Voodoo Boys and Alt), Songbird calls, and the first expansion job, Dog Eat Dog, kicks off. Rushing the main line to that point takes roughly ten hours from a fresh start, give or take.

Starting fresh? The main menu has a skip that drops a brand new V straight into Phantom Liberty. Handy if you bought the game mostly for the DLC and don't want to sit through the prologue first. Either route ends up in the same place.

The Songbird Handoff

Both routes funnel you into Dog Eat Dog, and that's the job where the tree flips on. Partway through, Songbird loads new Militech combat software onto V's Relic biochip. The character menu gains the Relic tab on the spot, and she throws in 3 Relic points to get you rolling.

A few things make this tree different from the other five:

• It's expansion-only. No Phantom Liberty installed, no tab.
• Levels don't feed it, and regular perk points can't be spent in it either.
• Every branch opener costs exactly 3 points, so those first 3 buy you a full root node immediately.

That last one's the fun part. The second the tab opens, you can afford a real upgrade instead of a down payment on one. Which root to grab depends on how you fight, and that's covered further down.

One more thing: the unlock is permanent. Once Songbird flips the tab on, it stays on for the rest of the save, and banked points never expire. You can also wander off to finish other business in Night City whenever you like, because the tree will be sitting there waiting when you come back.

Early Relic Point Locations

The Free Ones From the Story

Six of the fifteen points cost nothing but story progress. Songbird hands over the first 3 during her first contact with you in Dog Eat Dog. The second batch of 3 shows up later, during Birds with Broken Wings, which lands around halfway through the expansion's main line, a couple of jobs before the story splits at Firestarter.

So that's 6 points before you've explored a single alley. Since root perks run 3 points and the small follow-ups run 1, the story alone funds a full branch plus a little left over.

Four Terminals on the Early Path

The other nine points live in data terminals, and a few of them sit right on your way through the opening hours. Grab these while the story walks you around:

• EBM Petrochem Stadium. From the stadium fast travel point, head north past the three golden statues. The terminal hides behind the scaffolding at the north end of the market. Dog Eat Dog basically drops you off here, so there's no excuse for skipping this one.
• Kress Street. You walk right past it while leaving Myers's hideout during Lucretia My Reflection. It sits beside the fast travel point on the ground floor, next to the elevator. Miss it during the job and you can stroll back any time.
• The Brainporium. Also during Lucretia My Reflection. Follow the cables from the Capitan Caliente restaurant up to the roof, then take the ruined staircase facing the Heavy Hearts pyramid. Disarm the trip mines on the way up or they'll ruin your day.
• Golden Pacific. Central Dogtown. Climb the stairs in the building here and check behind the debris pile next to the turquoise graffiti. You swing near this spot on the way to the shuttle crash site, so keep your eyes open during that run.

Story points plus these four machines puts you at 10 of 15. At that stage, every remaining node in the tree is five terminals away, and none of the rest are hidden anywhere near as kindly.

Exploring Dogtown Terminals

How the Boxes Work

The terminals are restricted Militech machines, and besides Songbird they're the only source of Relic points in the game. Each one pays out exactly 1 point, and there are 9 total. They don't show on the map from a distance, either. The icon only blips onto your minimap when you get close, and the box itself gives off an audio cue, plus controller rumble if you're playing on a pad. Wandering with your ears open is genuinely how you're meant to find these.

Two rules worth knowing. The machines stay inert until you've met Songbird in Dog Eat Dog, so don't bother hunting before that. And each terminal is one-and-done: jack in, take the point, and that box never pays out again.

All Nine Spots

Directions below anchor on fast travel points, since that's the quickest way to get oriented in Dogtown:

1. EBM Petrochem Stadium: behind the scaffolding at the north end of the market, near the three golden statues.
2. Kress Street: beside the fast travel point, ground floor next to the elevator entrance.
3. The Brainporium: roof level, up the ruined staircase past the Capitan Caliente cables. Mind the trip mines.
4. Golden Pacific: up the stairs of the building in the marked area, behind debris by the turquoise graffiti.
5. Luxor High Wellness Spa: inside the southern section of the spa, behind a pillar in the boss room of the Increased Criminal Activity: Voodoo Boys event. Turrets and mines everywhere, so bring a real build.
6. Voodoo Boys barricade: take the southwest road from the spa's fast travel point into the underpass, hop the barricade with the Voodoo Boys graffiti, and jack in.
7. Terra Cognita: inside the building hosting the Increased Criminal Activity event, guarded by a crowd of goons and an Arasaka Drone. Fight smart or sneak past.
8. Barghest Stronghold: the Increased Criminal Activity spot near Myers's hideout, down in the underground passage. The terminal sits behind a door that wants 9 Technical Ability. Not specced for it? There's a floor hatch behind some crates in the lower area that skips the check entirely.
9. Heavy Hearts overpass: the building across from the Heavy Hearts club. Climb the stairs to the overpass between the two buildings, hang a left at the top, and walk straight out to the terminal on the balcony over George Washington Street.

Notice how many of those sit inside or right next to Increased Criminal Activity markers? Clearing the event and looting the machine in one trip is the efficient play, since you're fighting through the area anyway.

Choosing Perks by Playstyle

The tree has three branches, and they're honestly aimed at three different kinds of V. Roots cost 3, follow-ups cost 1, and everything together adds up to 15. So this is mostly a question of buying order, at least until you've swept Dogtown clean.

Guns and Quickhacks: Vulnerability Analytics

Most builds want this one first, because it works with anything that deals damage. In a fight, enemies start showing vulnerabilities: weak points marked on their armor and chrome (you'll hear the beep when one spawns). Hit one and the shot always crits, punches through 25% of the target's armor, and counts as weakspot damage. Break the weak point entirely and it blows up in a 3 meter EMP blast that tags anyone standing nearby.

Machine Learning, the 1-point follow-up, makes new vulnerabilities pop up 10% more often and adds 5% crit damage against them for 25 seconds. The effect stacks up to five times, and max stacks double it. Gunfighters and netrunners both get silly value here, since it multiplies whatever your build already does instead of asking you to change anything.

Sneaking: Emergency Cloaking

Stealth players, this branch is yours, with one catch: you need Optical Camo sitting in your Combat Gadget quickslot. No camo, no value.

With it, popping camo mid-fight makes enemies flat-out lose track of you, which turns a piece of escape gear into a real panic button for blown sneaking runs. Sensory Protocol, the follow-up, might be even better. Get spotted while crouched and time slows for a moment. Dodge or dash out of their line of sight and combat drops completely. It runs on a 120 second cooldown, so it's up most times you need it. For a Cool-heavy stealth build, this pair is pretty much mandatory.

Punching and Chrome: Jailbreak

If you run arm cyberware, Jailbreak upgrades all four arm types at once, and each type gets its own 1-point upgrade afterward:

• Mantis Blades: dismembering someone or landing a finisher charges your next leap attack. A charged leap closes up to 30 extra meters and carves everything near the target. Spatial Mapping adds a cripple plus a bigger dismember chance for 10 seconds on leap hits.
• Gorilla Arms: attacks build charge, and a fully charged heavy hit throws out a shockwave that staggers everyone around you. Limiter Removal turns that shockwave into a full knockdown. A classic trick is grabbing these for the Beat on the Brat fistfights, then swapping the arms out afterward.
• Projectile Launch System: hold fire to overcharge, and one shell becomes a burst of 5 across a wider area. Launch Capacity Override adds one more charge to the implant. Technical builds running Pyromania love the volley, since five blasts in a single shot feeds those stacks fast.
• Monowire: gets a dedicated slot for a Control quickhack like Reboot Optics or Cripple Movement. Charge the wire, release, and the hack uploads without spending any RAM. Data Tunneling then spreads that hack to every enemy caught in the same swing.

One caveat: the follow-ups only matter for the arm you actually use. Running Monowire? Spatial Mapping does nothing for you. And if you never equip arm cyberware at all, skip this whole branch without guilt. The other two branches only cost 8 points combined.

A Sample Buying Order

Want a concrete plan? Here's one that fits a flexible V. Spend the first 3 from Songbird on Vulnerability Analytics, since it pulls weight in every single fight. Add Machine Learning for 1 point once the early terminals start rolling in. After the four machines on the story path plus both of Songbird's handouts, you'll have collected 10 total. Drop 4 more on the stealth pair (Emergency Cloaking plus Sensory Protocol) and you've spent 8, with 2 banked toward Jailbreak, which the remaining five terminals finish funding.

By the end of the DLC you own everything anyway, so don't stress the order too much. The only genuinely rough outcome is sinking 3 points into a root for gear you never use, like grabbing Jailbreak on a run where you never equip arms.

Resetting and Testing Your Build

Free Perk Refunds

Since the 2.0 update, regular perks refund for free, as often as you like. Open the character menu, hover a perk you own, and hit the refund button on it. There's no refund-all option, so a full rebuild means clicking each one, which is tedious but costs nothing. Go ahead and experiment with the normal trees all you want.

Attributes are a different animal. The Reset Attributes button in the lower corner of the character tab works exactly once per playthrough. Press it, get all your attribute points back, and that's your one mulligan. Plan the respec out on paper before touching it, or at least keep a manual save from beforehand.

Spending Relic Points Without Regret

Relic points are the scarce ones. Terminals pay once and never again, and the story grants are fixed, so there's no farm and nowhere to buy more. Fifteen is fifteen.

A couple of habits keep that painless. Manual save before dropping 3 points on a root node you're unsure about. There's also the official Cyberpunk Builds Planner on CD Projekt's site, which lets you mock up a full layout before you commit anything in game. And since regular perks refund for free, you can reshape the rest of your build around a new root without paying a thing for the experiment. Test in the field, not the menu. Dogtown is wall-to-wall fights, and half the terminals sit inside Increased Criminal Activity events anyway, so you can buy a perk, clear the event next door, and feel out the difference right away.

The margins are forgiving, though. A full clear of the tree runs exactly 15 points and the game contains exactly 15, so the only real mistake you can make is finishing the DLC with terminals still humming away unopened in Dogtown.