Cyberpunk 2077's Day 1 patch, explained

There's been some confusion over Cyberpunk 2077's launch day patch, both around what it's called and what it's meant to address. Interest in Cyberpunk 2077's mythical Day 1 patch has only intensified after widespread reports of bugs, detailed both in our Cyberpunk 2077 review and broader look at bug reports from other outlets. So what the hell is in Cyberpunk 2077's Day 1 patch?

With launch day here, and Cyberpunk 2077 already available in some parts of the world, the answer is becoming clearer. 

What's the difference between the Cyberpunk 2077 Day 0 patch and Day 1 patch?

Part of the confusion stems from what the launch patch is called. Among commenters on Reddit, Twitter and elsewhere, it's been unofficially named the Day 1 patch. Even if it makes sense to call the patch arriving on day one the Day 1 patch, CD Projekt doesn't officially call it the Day 1 patch.

During my review process, I received an early version of what CD Projekt Red referred to as the Day 0 patch. Also confused by the name, I asked for clarification: was this the patch intended to represent the game at release, or was something else planned for the 10th, too?

We were told that Day 0 patch was part of the update that all players will get on launch day, with more fixes to be rolled into the final version of the Day 0 patch. We included this note at the top of our review.

So, the Day 0 patch is the Day 1 patch, resolutely reinforced by a recent tweet from CD Projekt Red's global community lead on Twitter:

‼️ Day 0 Update = Day 1 Patch ‼️December 9, 2020

We don't know what additional fixes were rolled into the final version of the Day 0 (Day 1) patch. However, according to CD Projekt Red's community lead, the update for GOG will be "a few hundreds mb"—that seems to represent a small change to the version I played for review. But who knows what those mb are packing? 

As stated in my review, I encountered an onslaught of audiovisual bugs before and after implementing the patch, so I wouldn't expect the Day 0 patch to be a perfect band-aid. 

Early reports from console players on the Cyberpunk subreddit confirm that plenty of bugs are still in there, from big scripting errors to the audiovisual tics I saw in every quest. We'll keep an eye out for official patch notes and share those as soon as they arrive, if they do at all. 

Are there detailed patch notes for Cyberpunk 2077?

When we installed the patch while reviewing Cyberpunk 2077, these are the only details CD Projekt Red provided us about the contents of the patch:  

• Performance improvements.
• Partially fixed an issue with weapons floating in the air after killing enemies.
• Fixed photo mode lighting when ray tracing is enabled.