With update 2.2 for Cyberpunk 2077, CDPR promises a big performance boost for Arrow Lake aka Intel Core Ultra 200, stealth paint jobs to outsmart the NCPD, and talkative companion Johnny Silverhand now occasionally appears on car rides. The character menu gets over 100 new options.
Vehicle paintwork is becoming flexible
With CrystalCoat, players can now give various vehicles a flexible special paint job. This allows the paintwork to be changed quickly while driving and can also lower the NCPD wanted level. What Lester is to GTA Online players could now become CrystalCoat to Cyberpunk players.
Steal paintwork with TwinTone
In conjunction with CrystalCoat, players can now use TwinTone to copy various paint finishes from vehicles on the open road and exchange them for a “Low fee“save. Since CrystalCoat allows for flexible repainting, you also save yourself a trip to the workshop. TwinTone uses the scanning technology of Kiroshi implants, but only works inside vehicles painted with CrystalCoat.
Vehicles that support both functions will be marked with a new spray can at in-game car dealers. There are also ten additional vehicles available to purchase.
Core Ultra 200 gets significantly more performance
In the tests for the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, Intel's new Arrow Lake architecture was able to shine with enormously improved energy efficiency, but it was particularly noticeable in Cyberpunk that the new Intel CPUs were slower than their predecessors. This ensures that the new top model has a Core i5 14600K and was unable to overtake the AMD 9950X – and that in the CPU-heavy 720p test.
Little explanation, but a full-bodied promise
With Update 2.2, at the very end of the change history it just says: “Threading system has been optimized“and the performance like that”improved by up to 33%“. However, tests will have to show whether this refers to the benchmark sequence or is really just a top improvement. A 33 percent improvement would give Arrow Lake a significant boost.
Silverhand is now going along
The fact that development studios are inspired by an active mod community is nothing new and has already happened several times for CDPR in Cyberpunk 2077; the Night City Metro was also first implemented using mods. With Update 2.2, the developers are implementing a popular mod for Johnny: This now occasionally accompanies the player on car rides through Night City and comments on what is happening.
Photo mode, character creation and more
CDPR has also worked on the character menu for V: the player can now choose from 100 more customization options, from eye colors to nail colors and facial scars.
Big upgrade for photo mode
The photo mode has also been generously revised and now offers a free drone camera with increased range. This not only gives more freedom for recording, but is also accompanied by the option to set your own aspect ratio. The controls have also been refined. So that V doesn't have to pose alone in the photos, up to 3 NPCs can be placed on his side. The right mood is ensured by the placement of the light sources and the adjustability of the effect strengths. The developer is thus significantly expanding the photo mode.
Digital picture frame for V's apartment
Anyone who puts a lot of effort into creating exhibitable recordings using the new functions can display them in their new apartments using the SmartFrames. This is a digital picture frame made by the manufacturer Kiroshi, who is known for visual products in cyberpunk. Technically, the function simply retrieves images from the screenshot folder, so images from strangers to cyberpunk can also be exhibited.
Change history
Other changes include some bug fixes as well as new Razer Chroma effects, as well as the adjustment so that players now have to actually complete other quests in order to progress through “Wait” quests and can no longer just marvel at the Corpo Plaza. The full change history for Update 2.2 is available from CD Projekt Red.
The update is already being distributed via Steam, the Epic Games Store and GOG.
