Dogtown is a mess. It’s a walled-off, crumbling deathtrap where the rules of Night City don’t apply, and honestly, that’s why the gear there is so much better. When CD Projekt Red dropped the expansion, they didn't just give us more guns. They fundamentally broke the math of the game in the best way possible. Phantom Liberty iconic weapons aren’t just stat sticks; they are specialized tools that force you to rethink your entire perk tree. If you're still walking around with a standard-issue Lexington, you’re basically bringing a butter knife to a railgun fight.
The sheer variety in the expansion is staggering. Some guns talk to you. Some guns set people on fire through walls. Some just make a very loud noise and erase whatever was standing in front of you.
The Power Creep is Real in Dogtown
Look, we have to talk about the Barghest gear. Kurt Hansen’s private militia didn't just hoard the food and medicine; they took the best tech. When you start hunting for these specific items, you'll notice a massive shift in how "Iconic" is defined. In the base game, an Iconic weapon usually just had a higher crit chance or maybe a faster reload. In Phantom Liberty, the effects are transformative.
Take Bald Eagle, for example. It’s a Power Revolver that belongs to Hansen himself. On its own? It’s a heavy hitter. But it’s designed to be used in a "combo" with the Fang knife. You throw the knife into a guy's leg, then shoot the knife with the revolver to blow the leg off. It’s brutal. It’s flashy. It’s exactly the kind of over-the-top mechanical synergy that makes the expansion's loot feel worth the headache of navigating the EBM Petrochem Stadium.
The game encourages this weird, violent creativity. You aren't just pulling a trigger. You're orchestrating a sequence of events.
Why the Order Shotgun is Actually Terrifying
If you enjoy the "Tech" playstyle, you've probably heard of Order. You buy it from the black market dealer in the stadium—assuming you have the eddies. It is a double-barrel Tech shotgun. That sentence alone should scare most NPCs.
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You can charge it up to over 100% capacity. When you release that trigger, it doesn't just shoot; it vaporizes. It leaves a trail of EMP energy that disables cyberware. I've seen it drop high-level MaxTac officers in a single blast if your build is tuned for charge speed and bolt shots. The downside? The recoil is basically like being kicked by a mule. It's slow. It's clunky. But if it hits, the fight is over. Period.
Finding the Stuff Everyone Misses
Most players follow the main quest and pick up whatever falls off the bosses. That’s a mistake. Some of the most interesting Phantom Liberty iconic weapons are tucked away in side gigs or hidden behind specific choices during the "Firestarter" mission.
- Crimestoppers: This is a Smart Pistol you find during the "Heaviest of Hearts" gig. It’s easy to walk right past it. It has a chance to disable cyberware limbs and increases crit damage.
- Ogou: This is a smart pistol dropped by a robot boss in the "Treating Symptoms" gig. It fires two explosive rounds. It's basically a pocket-sized rocket launcher.
- Agaou: An Iconic Axe. It creates a shockwave on headshots. If you're running a "Cool" and "Reflexes" build, this thing turns the game into a slasher movie.
There’s a lot of debate about whether the "Kingmaker" or the "Hawk" is better for stealth builds. Honestly? It depends on how much you trust your aim. Hawk (Rosalind Myers’ rifle) applies a mark that weakens enemies and restores your stamina. It makes the game feel like a tactical shooter rather than an RPG. It’s precise. It’s clean. It feels like something a President would carry.
The Problem With the Black Market Dealer
A lot of people think the Black Market dealer in Dogtown is a shortcut. It is, but it’s an expensive one. He only sells Iconics that you missed during specific missions. If you haven't "unlocked" the opportunity to find the gun, he won't have it. Don't expect to just walk in and buy the Cynosure weapons like Erebus or the Militech Canto Mk.6 if you didn't take the specific story path required to craft them.
Those two items—Erebus and the Canto—are the "dark" rewards of the expansion. They utilize the Canto AI from beyond the Blackwall. Using them feels... wrong. The gun whispers to you. It screams when it kills. It’s some of the best environmental storytelling CDPR has ever done through a piece of equipment. But you have to betray someone to get it. That’s the trade-off. Dogtown always takes something back.
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Tactical Shifts: How to Build Around Your Gear
You can't just slap these guns onto any character and expect magic. The 2.0 update changed the perks so heavily that your weapon choice dictates your entire skill tree. If you're using Her Majesty, the suppressed pistol you get from Alex, you need to be deep into the "Cool" tree.
Her Majesty is arguably the best stealth weapon in the entire game, including the base game stuff. When your optical camo is active, it has perfect accuracy and guaranteed crits. It’s broken. It turns V into a ghost. You can clear an entire Voodoo Boys outpost without anyone even looking in your direction.
- Check your Cyberware Capacity: Many of these weapons have high "costs" or synergies with specific OS systems.
- Look for Synergy: If a gun says it deals extra damage to burning enemies, make sure you have a way to set them on fire (like the Pizdets SMG).
- Don't ignore the "Airdrops": Random crates falling from the sky in Dogtown contain some of the most underrated Iconics, like the Taigan revolver or the Alabai shotgun.
The Misconception About "Tier 5++"
There's this obsession in the community with finding "Tier 5++" versions of everything. With Phantom Liberty iconic weapons, the tier matters, but the effect is what carries you. An Iconic weapon at Tier 5 is usually better than a "regular" Tier 5++ gun because the unique modifier provides a utility that raw damage numbers can't match.
For instance, the Raiju is a Tech SMG you find in a restricted area. It fires through walls without needing to charge. Think about that. You don't have to wait for the "ping" to finish. You just see a silhouette and start spraying. No amount of "++" damage on a standard submachine gun can compete with the ability to kill a sniper while you’re standing behind a concrete pillar.
Practical Steps for Your Next Run
If you're jumping back into Cyberpunk 2077 today, don't rush the main story of the DLC. The weapons are the real rewards.
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First, go to the stadium and check the vendors, but don't buy the "filler" stuff. Save your money for the Order shotgun or the Mancinella revolver (which you get from Mr. Hands). Mancinella is a beast because it has a high chance to apply poison, and in the 2.0/2.1 meta, poison is a massive debuff for bosses.
Second, pay attention to the "Increased Criminal Activity" icons on your map (the three skulls). These aren't just combat challenges. Every single one of these locations has a boss that drops a top-tier Iconic weapon. The Sparky sniper rifle is hidden in one of these, and it's basically a long-range EMP cannon.
Third, make a choice during the "Firestarter" mission based on the gear you want, not just the ending you want. If you want the Blackwall-infused SMG Erebus, you have to side with Reed and go through the harrowing "Somewhat Damaged" mission. It’s basically a horror game at that point. If you side with Songbird, you get access to different gear later on, but you miss out on the literal "Demon" gun.
Finally, remember that you can upgrade these. Use your crafting components. A Tier 4 Iconic is okay, but these weapons only truly sing when you get them to Tier 5 and beyond. The investment is steep, but considering you’re fighting tanks and literal rogue AIs, you’re going to need the firepower. Dogtown is a place where "good enough" usually gets you killed. Go find the stuff that makes you the scariest thing in the city.
Start by clearing the "Increased Criminal Activity" node in the southwest of Dogtown; the boss there is tough, but the weapon drop is a game-changer for mid-range builds. Then, head to the Black Market and see what you've missed from the base game—sometimes a missed weapon from Act 1 becomes a god-slayer once paired with Dogtown's new cyberware.