In the leadup to its turbulent 2020 release, Cyberpunk 2077 was billed as “the role-playing game of the dark future.” The ‘dark’ part, at least, is perhaps more literal than many expected, with many of the shadowy recesses of Night City proving difficult to get around in—and given that this is only doubled down on in the recent Phantom Liberty expansion, it’s no surprise that players are searching for a way to bring light to the darkness.
Your Kiroshi Optic implants might be decent at picking out threats and transmitting quickhacks, but without some sort of flashlight attachment, you’ll still be tripping over your feet when you’re not bathed in Night City’s neon.
Can you get a flashlight in Cyberpunk 2077?
Unfortunately, there are no dedicated flashlights in the game, no matter how many ripperdocs you check. The closest thing you get to use is a flashlight attached to a diving suit in the linear missions Pyramid Song, and You Know My Name (the latter of which is easily the high point of Phantom Liberty and maybe even the game as a whole).
This is unfortunate, as Phantom Liberty‘s new district, Dogtown, doesn’t enjoy such frivolous big-city luxuries as “power” and “streetlights,” meaning that more often than not, you’re going to be trying to figure out what the path forward is in the dark ruins of some megabuilding or other. There are a few workarounds, however. While scanning your surroundings with your Kiroshis won’t brighten anything, it will at least highlight interactable objects like doors, buttons or switches to hopefully point you in the right direction. Of course, if all else fails, you can always turn up the brightness, either on your monitor or from within the game itself, which may compensate for all the “atmospheric” shadows that are giving you trouble.
Finally, for the adventurous, you can always look to the modding community. The “Simple Flashlight” mod has more than 300,000 downloads at the time of writing and does exactly what it says on the tin, adding a basic flashlight function in the vein of Dying Light. It’s just one of many Cyberpunk mods that enhance and transform the game.
It’s probably not worth holding out hope for a flashlight to be added, either. Phantom Liberty and its accompanying, Update 2.0 is the last substantial new content the game will get, with the upcoming Patch 2.01 expected to be the last one ever, any as yet undiscovered bugs notwithstanding. Maybe in Cyberpunk 2, if we’re lucky.
