Phantom Liberty's Chimera Tank Fight Took Two Years and a Massive Art Asset to Nail

CD Projekt Red has pulled back the curtain on one of the standout moments in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, revealing that the Chimera tank boss fight took roughly two years of work before it felt right.

The encounter, which throws players against a hulking armored war machine, is widely remembered as a highlight of the expansion. According to the studio, that polish did not come cheap. The Chimera itself is described as one of the most expensive art assets the developer has ever produced, reflecting the sheer amount of detail and animation packed into the machine.

The long development timeline points to how tricky the sequence was to pull together. A boss fight built around a large, mobile vehicle has to work with the game's open-world traversal, its mix of first-person gunplay and hacking, and the different builds players bring into battle. Getting all of that to feel fair, readable and exciting is a slow process of iteration, and CD Projekt Red says it took two years to land on a version it was happy with.

The revelation is a useful reminder of how much effort sits behind a single set piece. Players may spend only a short stretch of time fighting the Chimera, but the team spent years balancing, rebuilding and refining it. That investment appears to have paid off, since the fight is frequently singled out by fans as one of the best boss encounters in the game.

Phantom Liberty launched as the sole major expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 and has been credited with helping restore the game's reputation after its troubled release. The Chimera battle is a good example of the more ambitious, cinematic design the studio aimed for in the add-on.