Mission Order Guide help

[VeeDubbin]

Just got Phantom Liberty. Played the original 3 times, beat it twice. Decided to do a fresh install after so many months away.

Looking to play again with Phantom liberty.

Would like to play in the most logical/canon order for missions and side quests.

Any guides or suggestions on how to approach it?

[EJR]

You can do PL when ever you want, it is itself its own arc in the MSQ while also being a standalone story. I personally approach it until I reach the "point of no return" then begin the questline for PL, but you can start it when ever you want to the moment it pops up.

[Bjørn]

Although I started playing after the DLC, I found this online when I searched for something similar. Don't remember where now, but I copied it into a text file:

Rather than beginning Phantom Liberty when the opportunity presents itself, hold off on jumping right in and play until you unlock the Act 3 mission ‘Nocturne Op55N1, which is one of those “You can’t turn back beyond this point” missions.
That means you’ll need to complete Act 1, and the following Act 2 missions:

Search and Destroy
Play It Safe
Gimme Danger
Automatic Love
Down on the Street
Playing for Time
Tapeworm
Ghost Town

By jumping into Phantom Liberty at this time, you’ll be far enough in the main game that the new ending, which you can only unlock by beating Phantom Liberty, will actually make sense. That’s because depending on which endings you unlock in Phantom Liberty, there’s a chance the game will end right then and there for you. But by reaching Act 3, you’ll essentially replace the Act 3 missions and endings with Phantom Liberty’s creating a much more satisfying, and complete, story arc for V. Plus, characters from the main game will factor into new Phantom Liberty ending, but their appearances will make much more sense once you reach Act 3 of the main campaign.

I changed the order of the missions around a bit on the list as I did them, and also did some others (Panam's missions at least), but it might be of some help

[crypticmetaphor]

there are tie-ins with the main game. a lot of quests in PL will get better/different resolutions if you did the associated base game gig. if you're planning on replaying the whole thing I would save PL to right before the end. its also dope af so right as you start to burn out from some of the side gigs it will pick you back up

[Tokenn]

I would suggest you complete all the 'relationship' side jobs before you arrive at any ending, either in the base game or Phantom. They all have some degree of bearing on the ending sequences.

Be at a fairly high level when you start Phantom (you'll get the call after finishing up with the Voodoo Boys) . You need to hit the ground running when it starts

[EricHVela]

If you haven't played through the base game at least once, give this reply a complete miss. (Otherwise, read at your personal discretion.)

The mission arc regarding the heist fallout starting with Automatic Love (required for Judy's relationship arc) seems to be the one that pushes toward unlocking PL. I'm saving it for last.

I'm doing all other content as soon as it's available.

Problem: V was mid-40s level by the time I completed Playing for Time. Level scaling's a painful shock (but only because I was expecting to mow through enemies instead of fighting them—that's on me).

Neat thing: Without the opportunities to show how alike V and Johnny are, Johnny's empathy meter was low on most of that extra content and much of his dialog, both incidental and direct, was different than anything I had prior.

Between Love Like Fire and Playing for Time, Johnny'll comment about wanting to kill V in some situations where he won't say such after Playing for Time in those same situations.