The short answer
Buy the Core Rulebook first, then buy the book that fixes the next real need at your table. Get Black Chrome when choices of gear, cyberware, vehicles, and Night Markets will make sessions better. Get Danger Gal Dossier when a GM needs factions, NPCs, and a mission ready to use. Get Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn when the group wants a linked, street-level campaign rather than another pile of options. Get an Interface RED volume only when you want the particular DLC it collects.
That order is deliberately unglamorous. A campaign that has not yet found its crew, jobs, or table rhythm gains nothing from more books. The Core Rulebook has the complete foundation. Expansions should answer a question your group is already asking.
Hot take
Do not make every new sourcebook available to players the moment it arrives. Start a campaign with the Core Rulebook, then add one expansion because it supports the kind of jobs the crew has chosen. A focused gear book can make a Tech or Fixer happier; a faction book can give a GM a sharper city; a campaign book can give a new group momentum. Opening every catalog at once mostly turns character creation into shopping and makes it harder for the table to see what the core game already does well.
The same logic applies inside each book. The best Black Chrome purchase is often the one the crew cannot make yet, and the best Danger Gal Dossier faction is the one that offers a better deal than the crew's current plan. Scarcity and motive make a sourcebook useful; volume does not.
The exception is a group that has explicitly asked for a high-option campaign and has a GM ready to curate it. Even then, name the allowed sources before character creation and add books in batches rather than treating every publication as mandatory rules baggage.
Buy by need, not release date
| Your table needs... | Buy or use... | Why it is the right next step |
|---|---|---|
| The complete game | Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook | The baseline for character creation, Roles, skills, combat, netrunning, cyberware, equipment, the Time of the Red, and GM procedures. |
| A low-commitment first session | Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode | A free quickstart with enough information to play a single mission. Use the full Core Rulebook for an ongoing campaign. |
| A boxed introduction you already own | Cyberpunk RED Jumpstart Kit | A 2019 starter box with streamlined rules. Convert its missions before continuing with core rules. |
| More gear with a Night Market context | Black Chrome | More than 170 items across apps, cyberware, fashion, armor, gear, linear frames, vehicles, and weapons, plus a look at the 2045 economy and six Night Markets. |
| Ready-made Night City pressure | Danger Gal Dossier | Fifteen factions, more than 100 NPC biographies and stat blocks, NPC-creation guidelines, and a mission give a GM usable people instead of generic opposition. |
| A connected campaign | Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn | Six missions designed to be played as a street-level campaign built around the Forlorn Hope. |
| A 2070s entry point | Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Mission Kit | A starter box with the basics plus new rules and items for 207X-era play. Confirm the setting before mixing it with a 2045 campaign. |
| A deeper 2045 city | Night City 2045 | A 2026 city sourcebook covering Night City's history, laws, services, factions, districts, and hundreds of mapped locations. |
| A curated DLC reference | Interface RED | Five collections of selected DLC, each with an exclusive bonus article. Check the current checklist for collection boundaries. |
The Core Rulebook is not optional for a standard campaign. The publisher describes it as containing everything you need to play: character creation, rules, world lore, and stat blocks, set in and around 2045. Easy Mode and the Jumpstart Kit are ways in, not replacements for that foundation.
Core Rulebook: the campaign foundation
The Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook (CR3001, November 2020) contains the Time of the Red setting, character creation, ten Roles and their Role Abilities, Lifepaths, STATs and Skills, cyberware and cyberpsychosis, action resolution, combat, netrunning, healing, equipment, Night City, the street economy, and GM material for running jobs.
That does not mean a new group should study every chapter before its first session. Use the book as the shared authority, then learn the rules the crew has actually reached. The book is intimidating only when a group mistakes it for a reading assignment instead of a toolkit. A crew that learns a rule because it needs to get a friend out of danger will remember more than a crew that read fifty pages without a reason to care.
See the Cyberpunk RED beginner's guide for the purchase verdict and first-session path. Returning from an earlier edition? Read Cyberpunk RED versus Cyberpunk 2020 before carrying an old character sheet, Skills, or Netrunning procedure into a RED campaign.
What the Core Rulebook actually covers
The book runs from character and setting foundations toward the procedures a crew and GM use at the table. The section names below follow its contents page.
| Book section | What it gives the table | When it becomes important |
|---|---|---|
| View from the Edge, including a tabletop RPG primer | The genre's social pressures, the basic tabletop conversation, and Streetslang. | Before the first job and whenever the group needs shared expectations. |
| Soul and the New Machine, Tales from the Street | The ten Roles, the three methods of making a character, and the Lifepath. | At character creation and when a backstory connection becomes relevant. |
| Fitted for the Future, Putting the Cyber into the Punk | STATs, Skills, weapons and armor, your outfit, cyberware, and cyberpsychosis. | When a character takes damage, buys gear, installs chrome, or needs a specific tool. |
| Getting it Done | Resolving actions with Skills, the Skill list, Role Abilities, and multiclassing. | Whenever success and failure both change the plan. |
| Friday Night Firefight | Combat time, actions, ranged and melee combat, armor, vehicle combat, and Reputation. | When a job becomes violent or an escape turns into a chase. |
| Netrunning | NET actions, NET combat, programs, cyberdeck hardware, doing a Netrun, and building a NET Architecture. | When a physical objective includes a system the crew must access. |
| Trauma Team | Wound States, Critical Injuries, stabilization and healing, Trauma Team, street drugs, therapy, and cyberpsychosis. | When the cost of a job follows the crew home. |
| Welcome to the Dark Future through Everyday Life | The history leading to the Time of the Red, the Neocorps, Night City, its gangs and key places, and daily life. | When the campaign needs a location, a lifestyle cost, or a consequence with social weight. |
| The New Street Economy | Night Markets, the Night Market appendix of goods, and making a living. | When the crew shops, sells, or needs a reason to take a job. |
| Running Cyberpunk, Screamsheets, Black Dog | GM advice, Beat Charts, advancement, Mooks and Grunts, Encounters in the Red, three Screamsheet adventures, and the short story Black Dog. | When the GM prepares the next job or needs help turning pressure into play. |
This is why expansions are optional additions rather than substitutes. A gear catalog can add choices and a faction book can add ready opposition, but the Core Rulebook supplies the common language that lets the crew use them together.
Learn the book in the order your job needs it
For a first session, keep the learning path small and open the relevant section as a situation appears.
| Start with this | Add this when it matters | Avoid doing this |
|---|---|---|
| The basic resolution procedure and the character sheets | Combat details when a conflict turns violent. | Rehearsing every combat option before anyone has an objective. |
| Each character's Role, key Skills, and immediate gear | Deeper Role Ability rules as the player calls on them. | Treating a Role as a narrow job title rather than a source of crew options. |
| One neighborhood, client, objective, and deadline | Night City, economy, or faction details when the job reaches them. | Asking the GM to memorize the entire setting before inventing a local problem. |
| The physical reason for a Netrun | Programs, cyberdecks, and NET Architecture procedure when the crew has an access point. | Adding a separate NET scene just because someone chose Netrunner. |
| Current wounds and current cyberware | Healing, therapy, advancement, and expanded gear after the consequences land. | Turning every session break into a catalog review. |
The book remains the authority for exact values and procedures. This is a reading order, not a replacement rules summary.
Who needs the book at the table
One shared physical or digital copy can support a group that works collaboratively, subject to the publisher's terms and the format the group owns. The practical question is who needs a dependable place to check the rule that matters right now.
| Person at the table | What they need from the Core Rulebook |
|---|---|
| GM | The procedures, setting baseline, GM advice, encounters, NPC support, and the authority to make a consistent call. |
| New player | Their character creation method, Role, key Skills, gear, and enough of the basic loop to make informed choices. |
| Combat-focused player | Actions, attacks, damage, armor, Critical Injuries, and the rules that make positioning and protection matter. |
| Netrunner, Tech, Medtech, or other specialist | Their Role Ability and the specialized chapter when the job calls for it. |
| Returning group | The exact source for any rule the table has not used recently, plus a common baseline before expansions are added. |
The book is most valuable when the table is resolving a disagreement. Check the exact rule, make a timely call, and return to the job. Rules lookups should clarify play, not stop it.
Jumpstart kit vs Core Rulebook
For an ongoing campaign, use the Core Rulebook. Use the Jumpstart Kit for a ready-to-play introduction, then convert its missions before continuing with the full game. The publisher's FAQ calls the Jumpstart Kit a "starter box" introduction with essential rules, world lore, pregenerated characters, an adventure, Screamsheets, dice, and more, and says plainly that it is not a full ruleset. The Kit released in August 2019; the Core Rulebook followed in November 2020.
The Kit's strength is getting a group to the table quickly. Its weakness starts only when a campaign asks it to settle questions it was never built for.
What each starter product is for
| Product | Verified purpose | Best use | Do not rely on it for... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cyberpunk RED Jumpstart Kit (CR3000) | An introductory box set with streamlined essential rules, lore, pregenerated characters, an adventure, Screamsheets, and dice in the physical box. | A quick, low-friction first session or a group that wants prepared material. | The final authority for a full campaign's rules. |
| Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook (CR3001) | The complete game: character creation, rules, world lore, and stat blocks in the 2045 setting. | An ongoing campaign, custom characters, exact procedures, and future expansion choices. | A shortcut around choosing the right first-session scope. |
| Jumpstart Kit Conversion Guide | A free publisher guide for running the Kit's missions with full core rules, rebalanced for the start of a core campaign. | Continuing Kit material after moving to the Core Rulebook. | A reason to blend old and new rules from memory. |
| Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode | A free quickstart with enough information to play a single mission. | The lowest-commitment tryout. | Anything beyond that one-mission trial. |
The conversion guide is also collected in Interface RED Volume 2, which matters if you would rather own it in print.
The rules difference is the decision
The publisher's checklist says some Jumpstart Kit rules changed between its release and the Core Rulebook. A group should not answer a current rules question by combining a remembered starter-box procedure with a core rule. Use this transition instead:
- Finish or pause the Jumpstart material at a natural break.
- Choose the Core Rulebook as the campaign's rules authority.
- Use the free conversion guide for any Kit mission you want to continue.
- Make future characters, gear, and rulings from the Core Rulebook and deliberately approved supplements.
The conversion guide is more than an errata sheet. Its introduction describes it as a way to run all the Kit's missions with the full rules and as a rebalancing of those missions for the beginning of a core campaign, replacing their earlier role as quick one-shots. It also changes some starting assumptions, such as who owns the building in The Apartment.
Which starting route fits your group?
| Your group needs... | Start with... | Then do this |
|---|---|---|
| A one-session or low-commitment tryout | Easy Mode through the Cyberpunk RED beginner's guide, or the Kit if you own it. | Decide whether the group wants a continuing campaign before expanding its options. |
| A flexible ongoing campaign | The Core Rulebook. | Build a crew, set the campaign's allowed sources, and use the book for exact procedures. |
| To continue a Kit adventure with a newly committed group | The Core Rulebook plus the Jumpstart Kit Conversion Guide. | Convert the mission instead of assuming the starter-box version remains current. |
| A physical starter package with play aids | The Jumpstart Kit, if that ready-to-play format is the priority. | Plan the transition to the Core Rulebook before the table outgrows prepared material. |
The new-buyer verdict is the Core Rulebook. It is the only one of these products the publisher identifies as the complete game.
Easy Mode and the Kit are not interchangeable either. Easy Mode is a free, single-mission quickstart. The Kit is a 2019 box with its own prepared package and rules history. If the obstacle is "we want something ready tonight," starter material helps. If it is "we want to build and run our own campaign," start with the Core Rulebook rather than taking a detour through a product whose rules later changed.
Black Chrome: gear with campaign hooks
Black Chrome (CR3061, February 2023) is a gear book in the tradition of the Cyberpunk 2020 Chromebooks. It brings over 170 items: apps, cyberware, fashion and armor, general gear, linear frames, vehicles, and weapons. It also covers the 2045 economy, lore about the corporations that make the items, and six Night Markets with the Fixers who run them.
Its best value is not raw power. The book places its items inside a world of manufacturers, Fixers, and markets, so a new piece of gear can create a lead, a favor, a repair problem, or a hard choice. Do not add it because every character needs a longer shopping list. When an item is always on hand, it becomes another line on a sheet. When it needs a Fixer introduction, a Night Market visit, or a favor owed to the wrong person, it becomes a Cyberpunk story.
Use the catalog to ask better questions
The book has breadth, but a category is not a character plan. Start with a recurring problem at the table, then use the relevant entries to decide whether the proposed purchase earns a scene.
| Black Chrome material | Useful question for the crew |
|---|---|
| A weapon, armor, or general gear entry | What approach does this support that the team actually uses? |
| Cyberware or a linear frame | What prerequisite, capacity, Humanity, installation, or downtime pressure comes with it? |
| A vehicle or upgrade | Does it change routes, cargo, exposure, or the crew's escape plan? |
| A manufacturer detail | Who benefits if the crew uses this, and who notices? |
| A Night Market booth reference | Who can get this item, and what do they want in return? |
Read the exact entry for its procedure and restrictions, then let the campaign decide whether the option fits its tone and present circumstances. The book itself invites homebrew and tells players to ask their GM before assuming a modification is possible.
Night Markets are the limit, not decoration
Black Chrome details six Night Markets: 3-Piece's Joint, Woodchipper's Block Party, Molly Anderson's Market, Mister K's Midnight Market, Ms. Mynah's Night Market, and Rex Royale's Casino. Each entry covers how often it is held, who runs it, what it sells, where it is held, how to score an invite, how a player character Fixer can get in on the action, and its security, with a full-spread map. That gives the GM an answer to the more interesting question: why is this item here tonight?
It is not a guarantee that every listed item is available. The book tells the GM to set a market's goods first, either randomly with the Core Rulebook's Night Market rules or by choice. Shoppers then have a chance to find the specific Black Chrome goods too. Each listing except Apps carries a "Pick-up or Browse at Booth" code: the letter names one of the six markets and the number points to a spot on its map.
| Availability signal | Put it to work at the table |
|---|---|
| A particular Night Market | Give the crew a place, time, crowd, and security problem. |
| A booth or vendor connection | Turn the acquisition into a conversation, favor, or future contact. |
| A market category | Decide whether the current job and local economy make that kind of stock plausible. |
| A missing item | Make the crew choose between waiting, finding another lead, or changing the plan. |
The Cyberpunk RED Gear Guide explains what the Night Market Index can locate and what it cannot decide for a campaign.
Buy gear for the job, not the category
Black Chrome rewards a crew that knows what it does. A vehicle can make a cargo job possible. A protective upgrade can make an extraction less reckless. A specialized tool can give the Tech a reason to plan around a repair. The wrong purchase is not necessarily weak; it is a purchase with no job waiting for it.
| If the crew needs... | Let Black Chrome add... | Check before saying yes |
|---|---|---|
| A different way into or out of a job | A vehicle, vehicle upgrade, or transport-focused tool | The route, ongoing upkeep, and who will notice it. |
| A distinct physical approach | Armor, weapons, or a useful piece of general gear | Whether it works with the plan, setting, and current market access. |
| A better way to make or repair things | A component that supports the Tech's recurring work | Whether its benefits create a real project instead of bypassing one. |
| A new identity or capability | Fashion, cyberware, or a linear-frame option | Its prerequisites, consequences, and whether the table wants that spotlight. |
Let cyberware still cost something
Expanded cyberware does not suspend the core pressures around chrome. Before an installation, check the exact entry alongside foundational hardware, available option slots, Humanity Loss, money, time, and installation requirements from the Core Rulebook. A flashy option is a good choice only when the player can describe the job or scene it changes.
The Cyberpunk RED Cyberware Guide covers those baseline decisions. Use it first, then use Black Chrome to deepen a concept rather than to patch every imagined weakness.
Nomad access expands options, not the family
Black Chrome adds a rule called Nomad Access. When a Nomad adds a stock vehicle to their Family Motorpool by raising Moto, they can take a vehicle whose Nomad Access value is equal to or lower than their Moto Rank. The vehicle arrives with its listed Upgrades, which do not cost extra Moto Ranks, and further Upgrades follow the normal rules as Moto rises.
That broadens a Nomad's choices without making every expansion vehicle a free family asset. Read the Cyberpunk RED Nomad Guide with the original Moto rule when a ride will shape a campaign. The vehicle should create routes, cargo, repair needs, and obligations for the whole crew, not just a new number on one sheet.
Add Black Chrome deliberately
- Identify the campaign pattern that needs more support: market access, vehicle jobs, Tech projects, cyberware concepts, or social pressure around gear.
- Agree which sources are available and how a player raises a new option between sessions.
- Treat a rare item as a lead. Decide who has it, why it is moving now, and what the crew must risk or owe to get it.
- Revisit the decision when the catalog starts solving every problem before play begins. A smaller set of options can make a street-level campaign sharper.
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Danger Gal Dossier: make Night City react
Danger Gal Dossier (CR3071, August 2023) is the best expansion for a GM who needs Night City to answer back. The publisher lists lore and details on fifteen Night City factions, among them the NCPD, Maelstrom, the Tyger Claws, Trauma Team, 6th Street, and the Bozos. It adds biographies and stat blocks for over one hundred NPCs, guidelines for building NPCs from Mook up to Hardened Boss, and a new mission, The Incident.
Buy it when the crew has started making enemies, contacts, and choices that deserve consequences. Do not buy it just to add stat blocks to combat. It also suits a crew whose Media, Fixer, Lawman, or Exec needs a living social map to push against.
Start with one faction and three questions
Fifteen factions is a resource, not a demand to use every group at once. Before putting one on screen, use its entry to answer three questions:
- What does this group want from the current job, neighborhood, person, or item?
- What can it offer or threaten that changes the crew's choices?
- Who inside the group has a personal reason to support, resist, or complicate the plan?
| What to pull from the entry | Turn it into play |
|---|---|
| Its past | Give the faction a grudge, reputation, or public claim that informs its first move. |
| Its advantages | Show a practical edge: information, transport, security, personnel, territory, or a safe place. |
| Its aims | Put an objective in conflict with the crew's client or one of the crew's own priorities. |
| Where it operates | Give a meeting, reconnaissance scene, break-in, or escape route a physical home. |
| A named character | Give the faction a voice, a recognizable method, and a reason to come back. |
Introduce a faction because it can offer a better deal than the crew's current plan, not because you need someone to fight. Violence is more interesting after the players have learned who profits from it, who gets hurt, and what an alternative would cost. The Cyberpunk RED Night City Guide helps place that pressure in a neighborhood, and the Cyberpunk RED Gangs And Factions Guide gives each group a concrete interest, resource, boundary, and response.
Use npcs as people before templates
Each NPC comes with a biography as well as a stat block. That makes them useful for Lifepath connections, plots, social scenes, and recurring relationships, with the numbers ready if a scene turns dangerous.
| NPC role | What it gives the GM |
|---|---|
| Contact | A specific person who can supply a lead, warning, introduction, or price. |
| Client | A job with a visible motive and a reason payment might change. |
| Witness | Information that is incomplete, biased, expensive, or personally risky to share. |
| Rival | Someone pursuing the same result through a different method. |
| Complication | A person the crew cannot dismiss because they hold power over the crew, loyalty, or a claim on the outcome. |
A memorable antagonist is often the contact who was useful last session and now has a reason to say no. Read the original entry for the exact game material, and do not assume every meeting needs to end in a fight.
Make the faction react, then stop plotting
The strongest use of this book is a reaction clock, not a scripted campaign. After the crew deals with a faction, decide what that group notices and what it can do next. Its response should follow its resources, priorities, and the crew's visibility.
| Crew action | Plausible response |
|---|---|
| The crew takes a public job against the faction | It protects its reputation, leans on a local contact, or sends someone to learn who hired the crew. |
| The crew helps one of its people | A named NPC offers a favor, asks for a risky follow-up, or creates an uncomfortable expectation. |
| The crew steals or exposes something | The group changes security, buys silence, frames a rival, or offers a deal. |
| The crew avoids the faction entirely | Its goal continues off-screen and reshapes the next neighborhood, client, or job. |
The Cyberpunk RED GM Guide pairs well with this: prepare a pressure system, decide how the people in it react, and let the crew choose which cost it will pay.
Build new npcs without erasing the book's value
The NPC-creation guidelines span power levels from Mook to Hardened Boss. Use them to create new people who belong beside the published characters, not as an excuse to make every opponent interchangeable. Keep a small reusable set:
- One named face with a clear motive.
- One or two supporting stat blocks that show how the faction operates under pressure.
- One civilian, contact, or family connection the faction cannot casually discard.
That is enough to run a location, respond to an unexpected player plan, and keep the feeling that the organization has a life beyond the immediate encounter.
The mission is a bonus, not the purchase test
The Incident is a useful addition, but the book's central value is its usable social map. Buy it for people and pressure first. The free July 2023 DLC Danger Gal Dossier+ adds cut content, including three plot hooks for each faction and extra stat blocks; the publisher checklist says it will not be collected in any Interface RED volume.
If the group only needs a one-session opponent, the Core Rulebook's Mooks and Grunts and the current job may already be enough. Bring in this book when you want an adversary, ally, or local organization to have a past and a future.
Tales of the red: Hope Reborn
Hope Reborn (CR3091) is a campaign purchase, not a setting encyclopedia. Its six missions are designed to be played as a street-level campaign focused on building a future for the Forlorn Hope, the classic edgerunner bar. According to the publisher checklist, it also reprints the rules, without the lore, from several DLC, including Chasing the Rabbit, All About Agents, Hot Pursuit, and No Place Like Home.
Pick it when the group wants a prepared arc with room for its crew to matter. Skip it if you want to build a different neighborhood from scratch.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Mission Kit
The Mission Kit is a starter box themed to the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime. It includes the basics needed to play, plus new rules and items for 207X-era play. It can be a welcoming on-ramp for fans of the show, but its era and product-specific rules deserve a deliberate conversation before they are folded into a 2045 game. Read the Cyberpunk RED and Edgerunners Mission Kit guide for the starter-scope verdict, era choice, and adaptation checklist.
Night City 2045
Night City 2045 is the city-first purchase, released in 2026. The publisher lists city history, geography, government, laws, transportation, services, utilities, and media; street-level factions including gangs, criminal organizations, and security providers; a district-by-district breakdown; mapped locations; and stat blocks for gang members, enforcers, security, and everyday people. Buy it when "somewhere in Night City" has stopped being enough and the crew needs a neighborhood to care about.
Read the Cyberpunk RED Night City 2045 guide for its campaign timing, GM-facing city tools, and when it is worth the money.
Interface RED: what each volume collects
Interface RED volumes collect selected free DLC and add one exclusive bonus article each. They are not chronological core-rule updates, and they do not collect every download. Use this table to decide whether a volume saves you from assembling several related DLC PDFs. The Cyberpunk RED Interface RED guide covers buying advice by campaign need.
| Volume | Collected DLC | Bonus article | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface RED Volume 1 | Old Guns Never Die, Red Chrome Cargo, The Single Shot Pack, Cyberchairs, Elflines Online, and Elflines Online Expansion Pack 1 | All About Drones | Early add-ons, a Screamsheet adventure, pregenerated edgerunners, and drones. |
| Interface RED Volume 2 | Hardened Mooks, Hardened Lieutenants, Night City Weather, Jumpstart Kit Conversion Guide, Cargo Containers & Cube Hotels, Daeric Sylar's Guide to Elflines Online, and The 12 Days of Gunmas | Exotics of 2045 | Tougher opposition, housing, weather, and a Jumpstart-to-core bridge. |
| Interface RED Volume 3 | Hardened Mini Bosses, Digital Dating in the Dark Future, Woodchipper's Garage, Salvaging Night City, Midnight With the Upload, Must Have Cyberware Deals, Collecting the Random, Elflines Online the TCG, Spinning Your Wheels, and The 12 Days of Cybermas | Going Metal | Salvage, tougher encounters, downtime, netrunner gear, and Full Body Conversions. |
| Interface RED Volume 4 | Hornet's Pharmacy, Black Chrome+, Achievements and Loot Boxes, Stickball, The Dreaded Punknaught, Corporate Conapts & Studio Apartments, Halloween Screamsheets, and The 12 Days of Gearmas | Cyberfists of Fury | More gear, homes, small games, Screamsheet missions, and 23 martial art forms. |
| Interface RED Volume 5 | Breaking Your Stuff, Chasing the Rabbit, All About Agents, Toggle's Temple, Did Someone Say Murder?, Your New Best Friend, Screamsheet Generator, and The 12 Days of REDMas | Solo of Fortune 2045 | Item breakage, Agents, ranged weapons, mystery building, and Mercenary Level play. |
The official Cyberpunk RED Checklist is the source of truth for collection status. It is most useful when a DLC name sounds as though it ought to be in a volume but is not.
Read the Cyberpunk RED Screamsheet Guide when you want to turn the Core Rulebook's Screamsheet format or a collected DLC into a player-facing job lead.
Dlc that is not in Interface RED
Do not use "uncollected" as if it meant one thing. The publisher marks DLC with different status notes, and those distinctions affect whether you should hunt for the original download.
| Status | Verified examples | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Will not be collected in any Interface RED | Night City Tarot, Tales of the RED+, Danger Gal Dossier+, the Night Market Index, and CEMK DLC #1 (the Karaoke Night mission) | Use the original DLC if you want that content. Do not wait for a volume to supply it. |
| Rules reprinted without the lore | Hot Pursuit and No Place Like Home had their rules, but not their lore, reprinted in Hope Reborn; they are not in an Interface RED volume. | Decide whether you need the lore. If so, get the original DLC. |
| Not yet collected | Recent DLC such as Night City Atlas, Nomad Presents Radio, and Rockerboy Index | Check the current checklist, not an older guide snapshot. Volume 5 moved several earlier standalone DLC into a book. |
This is why a source-aware guide should cite a book or DLC instead of saying an option comes from "Cyberpunk RED" in the abstract. A table can then decide whether it wants the original download, a collected volume, a campaign book, or none of the above.
A simple purchase ladder
- Start with the Core Rulebook for an ongoing campaign, or use Easy Mode for a short trial.
- Play enough sessions to learn whether your group wants more jobs, more gear, more city, or more ready opposition. Ask whether the Core Rulebook already supports the job the group wants to run.
- Choose one expansion: Hope Reborn for a campaign, Black Chrome for gear, Danger Gal Dossier for GM-facing city pressure, or Night City 2045 for location depth. Check that it adds a meaningful choice, not only a longer option list.
- Name the allowed books before new characters or upgrades use them.
- Add an Interface RED volume only when its specific collected DLC supports the campaign you are already running.
- Before using a DLC, check its collection note in the publisher checklist. Do not assume a later book contains it.
For a new group, this order keeps the fiction and the crew ahead of catalog management. For a veteran group, it makes every added book a conscious change to the game rather than an accidental pile of legal options.
Where to go next
- Return to the Cyberpunk RED Guide Hub for the full library map.
- Use the Cyberpunk RED beginner's guide to choose between Easy Mode and the Core Rulebook and to prepare a first session.
- Read the Cyberpunk RED Gear Guide and the Night Market Index Guide to locate a published item without treating a listing as automatic campaign availability.
- Read the Cyberpunk RED Cyberware Guide before adding chrome from any book to a character plan.
- Read the Cyberpunk RED Fixer Guide and the Media Guide when contacts, deals, and public stories should make the city react.
- Read the Cyberpunk RED Roles Guide when the group is choosing Roles and building a crew.
- Read the Cyberpunk RED Interface RED guide before assuming a DLC is included in a collection.
- Read the Cyberpunk RED Night City 2045 guide when a recurring campaign needs district-level city detail.
- Read Cyberpunk RED versus Cyberpunk 2020 when a returning group needs the new-edition verdict.
- Use the Cyberpunk RED Comparison Guides for other product and edition decisions.
- Browse the Cyberpunk RED guide directory for every live guide.
Sources and scope
This guide checks its rules and product claims against the Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook (CR3001) and Black Chrome (CR3061), plus the publisher's Cyberpunk RED FAQ, current Cyberpunk RED Checklist, Jumpstart Kit Conversion Guide, and Danger Gal Dossier and Night City 2045 product pages. Descriptions of Danger Gal Dossier, Hope Reborn, the Edgerunners Mission Kit, and Night City 2045 stay at the level of that publisher information. The guide does not reproduce tables, item catalogs, prices, stat blocks, faction entries, maps, missions, or exact rules values. Use the books for exact play.
Get new Cyberpunk RED guides as they publish.
