How to beat Kurt Hansen in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Kurt Hansen is the top dog of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, this is our guide to how to beat Kurt Hansen when you finally get the chance to fight him.

Colonel Kurt Hansen is the leader of Dogtown, the independent district of Dogtown. You’ll hear from him plenty on your way through the new district, and by now you’ll have infiltrated his private party and hatched a plan to steal a cure for both your terminal conditions. During your escape from Dogtown, Hansen will burst in on your escape route from a shuttered metal door. This is a close-quarters fight that can get frustrating if you aren’t prepared, so let’s break down exactly how to beat Kurt Hansen.

Where to fight Kurt Hansen

Kurt Hansen will be present throughout Phantom Liberty, first as a distant overlord and eventually as an intimidating villain when you meet him at the Black Sapphire. You may desperately want to fight him well before this point, given that the game sets him up as the clear antagonist, even if that doesn’t end up being entirely true.

You’ll only be able to fight Kurt Hansen after infiltrating the Black Sapphire as the French netrunner twins whose personalities you scan while gambling at the Black Sapphire party. You’ll need to fully complete the infiltration and get to the portion where you have to make a decision about whether to help Songbird escape or betray her with Reed’s help in order to bring her back into FIA custody. This is the most key decision you’ll make in Phantom Liberty. If you choose to help Songbird, you won’t fight Kurt Hansen as Alex will kill him instead.

Kurt Hansen Fight

Starting the fight on the right foot

Kurt Hansen’s fight only ever happens at one point, in a small rectangular room with raised scaffolding around the edge and a large concrete platform in the middle-back portion of the room. When you enter this room, look for a large shuttered metal door on the opposite right side of the room where you enter. Hansen and several of his Barghest soldiers are behind this metal screen and they’ll ambush you if you don’t get the drop on them first.

The best option you have is to immediately throw two grenades so that they land right in front of the door before approaching. These grenades should deal damage through the screen, giving you the upper hand on Hansen and his goons. From there, they’ll realize you know they’re there and the metal screen will roll up. From here, your first priority should be to kill the Barghest soldiers. They won’t spawn again during the fight, so deal with them first. If you leave the Barghest soldiers alive too long, this fight becomes drastically harder than it needs to be. So stay out of Hansen’s sight as much as you can and take down the Barghest militants in order to let yourself focus on the big dog himself.

Kurt Hansen Phase One

Kurt Hansen has three separate phases, stages of the fight in which he’ll behave differently and require a new strategy to defeat. In the opening Phase, Hansen is skirmishing with his ranged weapons from ground level and will occasionally jump up onto the scaffolding to let suppressive fire rain down. How you want to navigate this first phase will depend on your playstyle, but we’ll break each of the main options down.

Hansen Phase One as a Netrunner character

As a Netrunner, you’re best positioned to start this fight from as far away as you can be. Throw the two recommended grenades in front of the door, then immediately swap into your Cyberdeck. As soon as you see Hansen’s guards, drop Contagions and Synapse Burnouts on as many of them as you can. Feel free to use Overlock to get maximum DPS out, Hansen will take a second to get into the room and you can use this time to sow peak destruction. Immediately heal if you’ve Overclocked, then use the remaining Overclock duration to put a Cripple Movement or Cyberware Malfunction Quickhack on Hansen himself. Hansen is most dangerous due to the Sandevistan cyberware that speeds him up, but both Cripple Movement and Cyberware Malfunction will lock him to the ground while you deal with his living goons.

Unlike some other classes, you won’t want to close the gap on Hansen when he leaps up to the scaffolding. You’re more than happy to take cover on the opposite side of the cement pedestal and peak out in slow-motion to drop a Synapse Burnout or Short Circuit on Hansen while he plinks shots at you. Play it slow, but make sure you’re ready for Hansen to jump down in Phase Two.

Hansen Phase One as a Melee character

This fight can be annoying as a melee combatant, just because Hansen also wants to get up close and personal with you. Despite this, the opening of the fight is relatively easy. You’re best off throwing the two grenades, and then as soon as the doors open, pop your cyberware of choice, often a Sandevistan, and get in there. Your first priority is to deal with Hansen’s goons, as not having other threats to focus on as a melee combatant is just what you want.

Hansen’s Barghest soldiers spawn on either side of him in the garage and can be easily distinguished from Hansen once you’re inside the atrium. Once Hansen comes out into the open, lay into him whenever you have an opening while trying to keep your health up. Once Hansen makes his way to the scaffolding, you’re best off following him up and running after him if you can tank damage as well as most melee-focused characters. Lay into Hansen when he’s up on the scaffolding, feeling free to drop away and heal as needed. This is your simple, brute-force solution to Phase One as a melee fighter.

Hansen Phase One as a Ranged character

Phase one as a ranged character is pretty simple. Get the jump on the Barghest soldiers with well-timed grenades, and then unleashing on Hansen’s goons. Use any cooldowns you have now, as making sure the Barghest soldiers don’t become a problem is the first step to being able to focus on Kurt Hansen himself. You should be able to make quick work of these additional enemies if you’ve teched your version of V into a ranged combat monster. Kurt Hansen himself will be somewhat more annoying, and you might be best getting up into the scaffolding just to get a better angle on Kurt.

Kurt Hansen Phase Two

Kurt Hansen’s second phase is when he closes the gap and gets angry. To start this phase, Hansen will leap down to the ground floor and charge at you. This will lead to an animation where he grabs you, stabs V through the hand, and depletes most of your health bar. This is mostly unavoidable the first time, though it’s possible to loop Hansen around obstacles in the environment to buy space, as we’ll discuss further on.

After this animation, immediately heal up, briefly damage Hansen and then run off. You’ll be able to see Hansen’s position on your minimap, so don’t worry about losing sight of him. In this Phase, Hansen’s main move is to rush after you with his Sandevistan, trying to grab you. You can stay perpetually safe by sprinting around the large cement construction at the opening of the room. Hansen isn’t fast enough to catch you in a full sprint if you cut corners well.

This means that this next phase can be reduced down to DPSing Hansen, and then sprinting in a circle. You might occasionally get tagged, but Hansen shouldn’t be able to get to you at all if you’re doing it right. This should be the core strategy no matter what character archetype you’re playing.

Hansen Phase Two as a Netrunner character

In Phase Two, Hansen is scariest because of his speed. This is why Cyberware Malfunction and Cripple Movement are the best options to lock him down. He’ll be unable to run, fight, or respond for a few seconds while the Quickhack resolves. During this time, Hansen is susceptible to a quick mag-dump from your weapon of choice.

Feel free to pop out some offensive Quickhacks during this window as well. Once it starts wearing off, position yourself on the opposite side of the partition. From here, just monitor Hansen’s position on your minimap and sprint to keep yourself on the opposite side from him until you can next hit him.

Hansen Phase Two as a melee character

Hansen’s second phase can be risky as a melee character, but you should be fine. Melees take the exact opposite approach from everybody else. You’re able to proc Hansen’s second phase pretty fast, so you need to be ready to keep up the pressure. A good melee build will rip through Hansen’s first phase with ease, so you should be fine to only disengage when needed in this phase.

Hansen Phase Two as a ranged character

Hansen’s second phase is very traditional for ranged characters. You want to keep Hansen on the opposite side of the cement structure as discussed, and open up fire whenever he stops moving. Hansen’s melee grab animations deal loads of damage in this phase, the most important thing is not letting him get you in the first place.

How to beat Kurt Hansen

The final phase, or portion, of the boss fight is after you’ve depleted Kurt Hansen’s health bar. You just need to finish him off, which there are two options for. You can either walk up and use the interact button to initiate a cutscene, or you can shoot or melee him without the cutscene.

There’s nothing to do here, but do be warned that if Hansen has died mid-Sandevistan, there’s a chance his body glitches into some of the terrain around you. If this is the case, shoot Hansen instead of initiating the cutscene, as initiating the cutscene can fling you outside the bounds of the map with no way back in.