Cyberpunk 2077’s most expensive boss fight took two years to build and was redone four times

Two years is more than enough time to jerry-rig a small project, but CDPR went the extra mile when developing Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and revealed some fascinating details about the process.

A two-year endeavor with no word on actual costs

CD Projekt Red continues to reveal new details about its redeemed Cyberpunk 2077 title, which is slated to receive a second anime season on October 20. According to CDPR, the Chimera tank boss fight in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty took the team more than two years to complete, though the studio remains tight-lipped about how much it cost to develop the encounter.

During CDPR’s AnsweRED podcast, the developers revealed that Phantom Liberty’s Chimera tank boss fight took an estimated two years to complete and went through four complete rebuilds. The encounter with the hexapedal boss reportedly required its own custom rig, weapon loadouts, and extensive scripted survival logic for V and NUSA President Rosalind Myers rather than relying on existing enemy systems.

During the AnsweRED podcast, game director Gabe Amatangelo, creative director Ignor Sarzynski, and art director Pawl Mielniczuk explained how the fight came together. Amatangelo felt that the Chimera boss fight reached a point where the gameplay, story, art direction, and world-building began pulling against one another instead of following a shared brief. Amatangelo stated:

“Sometimes we're making content that's a nexus point of different disciplines; the Chimera is a great example of that," Amatangelo said. "It was gameplay, narrative, art, worldbuilding.”

He continued:

“There were so many moving parts. Sometimes it was too gameplay-focused, sometimes it was too narrative, sometimes too art direction. It was about striking a balance, and I think the three of us got into it and went: ‘Okay, beat-by-beat, let’s do this.’”

Gamers experienced a boss fight that had four major redos 

Mielniczuk, who also co-hosts the podcast, eventually revealed how long it took to complete the fight: “I think we were reiterating it was two years to make this boss fight work.” He added that the encounter went through four different revisions involving changes to its equipment and weapons. The developers, particularly Sarzyński, believe the Chimera boss fight represents Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty’s “most expensive art assets ever.”

Still, that may simply be his impression of the Chimera boss fight, given the time frame and the number of revisions that went into a single sequence.

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