A classified archive of Night City, its wars, corporations,
gangs, mercenaries and legends. From the rise of megacorporate
power to the events surrounding the Relic, this database
documents the people and events that shaped the Dark Future.
Night City is a city built on contradiction. It was envisioned by Richard Night as a technological utopia, but became a place where corporations, gangs, mercenaries and ordinary citizens compete for power and survival.
CD PROJEKT RED describes the 2077 world as a future dominated by megacorporations, mercenaries, netrunners and cyberenhanced street warriors. Night City is a megalopolis where the polished heights of Corpo Plaza sit beside the Badlands and the violent underworld below.
THE DARK FUTURE
WORLD PROFILE // 2077
2077ARCHIVE YEAR
NCPRIMARY NODE
HIGHCORPO INFLUENCE
EXTREMESTREET RISK
The old order fractured long before 2077. Governments lost ground while corporations became increasingly powerful. The result is a world where technology is everywhere, security is privatized, information is currency, and personal identity can be altered by hardware and software. The official Cyberpunk 2077 site frames Night City as a place where mega corporations dominate from above while gangs, tech hustlers and illegal braindance operators control much of the street-level reality.
SOCIAL ORDER
Corporations as Powers
Megacorps are not merely companies. Their money, security forces, technology and political reach can rival the institutions meant to regulate them.
Arasaka and Militech are among the most important corporate powers in Night City's history. Their rivalry repeatedly turns economic competition into geopolitical conflict.
THE STREET
Edgerunners
Mercenaries, fixers, netrunners and specialists make a living in the gaps left by official institutions.
For an edgerunner, a reputation is an asset. A successful gig can open doors; a bad job can make the next one your last.
MEDIA
Braindance
Recorded sensory experiences became entertainment, evidence and a dangerous commercial product.
Braindance can reproduce memories and sensations, making it powerful for storytelling but equally useful for exploitation, blackmail and illicit markets.
HUMANITY
Chrome & Identity
The body is increasingly modular, blurring the line between biological human and engineered machine.
Cyberware can restore damaged bodies, enhance ability or radically transform appearance. In the Dark Future, the question is not whether you can change yourself, but how far you are willing to go.
NIGHT CITY
LOCATION DOSSIER // NC
Night City is a megalopolis built around ambition, spectacle and survival. Official material highlights its contrast between the polished towers of Corpo Plaza and the open outskirts of the Badlands.
CITY CENTER
Corpo Plaza
Glass, steel, security and wealth — the corporate image of Night City.
The district represents the city's vertical hierarchy: the higher you climb, the further everyday life can seem from the street.
WATSON
Kabuki
A dense district of clinics, markets, vendors, fixers and back-alley commerce.
Kabuki embodies the practical side of the city: if something can be bought, repaired, modified or smuggled, someone here probably knows how.
WESTBROOK
Japantown
Neon entertainment, luxury, nightlife and crowded streets.
Japantown's commercial glow sits close to the city's darker markets, making it a natural hunting ground for mercenaries and fixers.
OUTSIDE NC
The Badlands
Open territory beyond the city, where nomad families and travelers live beyond corporate walls.
The Badlands offer freedom from some city structures, but survival still depends on vehicles, water, fuel, trade and family networks.
MEGACORPORATE POWER
CORP WAR // ARCHIVE
In the Dark Future, corporations can function as political and military powers. Arasaka is associated with security, finance and technology; Militech is deeply tied to military hardware and the NUSA. Their rivalry is one of the defining tensions behind the modern era.
ARASAKA
Security // Finance // Power
A global megacorporation whose presence in Night City is inseparable from the city's history.
Arasaka's influence stretches from corporate security and finance to advanced technology and the preservation of identity through digital means.
MILITECH
Military // Industry // State
A military technology giant with enormous influence over weapons and the NUSA.
Militech's history is intertwined with corporate warfare and the changing relationship between private military power and government authority.
CONFLICT
The Corporate Wars
Corporate competition has repeatedly escalated beyond boardrooms.
When megacorps can field soldiers, intelligence networks and advanced weapons, a business dispute can become a war.
COUNTERPOWER
Fixers & Mercs
The street creates its own economy around corporate conflict.
Fixers connect clients to edgerunners. Mercenaries take the jobs corporations, gangs and individuals need done without leaving a clean trail.
CYBERWARE
HUMAN AUGMENTATION // TECH
Cyberware is not a luxury reserved for soldiers. In Night City it can be medical equipment, a fashion statement, a professional tool or a weapon. The city's culture treats body modification as part of everyday life, even as extreme augmentation raises questions about identity and humanity.
MEDICAL
Restoration
Cyberware can replace or enhance damaged biological functions.
Ripperdocs occupy a crucial place in the street economy, installing, maintaining and upgrading hardware outside conventional medical systems.
COMBAT
Weaponized Bodies
Reflex boosters, blades, reinforced limbs and other systems turn bodies into platforms for violence.
The more specialized the hardware, the more a person can become dependent on maintenance, upgrades and compatible equipment.
CULTURE
Style Over Substance
Fashion and cyberware are intertwined in a city where appearance can signal status, allegiance or danger.
Chrome is part of Night City's visual language: what you wear and what you install can announce who you are before you speak.
IDENTITY
The Self as Data
The Relic demonstrates the most extreme version of a question the world has been asking for decades: can a person be copied?
Digital constructs make memory and personality into something that can potentially be stored, transferred and manipulated.
THE NET
NETWATCH // BLACKWALL
The modern Net is not the open global network of the old world. After catastrophic cyberwarfare and the spread of rogue artificial intelligences, much of the old Net became dangerous territory. NetWatch and other institutions work to contain threats while corporations maintain their own secure networks.
A good netrunner can change the outcome of a physical confrontation without firing a shot.
BLACKWALL
The Firewall
A boundary between humanity's networks and the dangerous intelligences beyond.
The Blackwall is treated as a protective barrier, but exactly what exists beyond it remains one of the most unsettling mysteries of the Dark Future.
NETWATCH
Digital Law Enforcement
An organization tasked with keeping dangerous network activity under control.
NetWatch operates in a world where information infrastructure can be as strategically important as physical territory.
CORPO NET
Closed Systems
Corporations maintain isolated networks to protect secrets and assets.
For an edgerunner, a corporate network can be a vault, a battlefield and a trap at the same time.
JOHNNY // SAMURAI
ROCKERBOY DOSSIER // 2023
Johnny Silverhand is one of Night City's most iconic figures and the frontman of the chrome-rock band SAMURAI. Official Cyberpunk material describes him as fiercely anti-corporate and as the archetype of the rockerboy.
SAMURAI
Music as Rebellion
Johnny's music is inseparable from his politics and his hatred of corporate control.
SAMURAI became a symbol of rebellion in a city where corporations could shape culture as easily as markets.
2023
Arasaka Tower
Johnny's campaign against Arasaka culminated in the catastrophic events of 2023.
The attack became one of the defining historical moments remembered by Night City decades later.
2077
The Relic
A digital construct of Johnny becomes embedded in V's mind.
What begins as an attempt to survive the Relic becomes a conflict over identity, memory, revenge and whether a digital personality can be considered a living person.
LEGACY
Never Fade Away
Johnny's greatest weapon may be the fact that people still remember him.
In Night City, becoming a legend is one way to outlive the body. Johnny's legacy continues because the city never stopped telling stories about him.
STREET CULTURE
GANGS // FIXERS // AFTERLIFE
Below the corporate skyline is a network of gangs, fixers, ripperdocs, braindance editors, smugglers and mercenaries. Their world is informal, violent and highly social: favors matter, reputation matters, and every job can create a new alliance or a new enemy.
MERCENARIES
Edgerunners
Independent operators take jobs that official institutions cannot or will not handle.
The best mercs build a reputation through increasingly dangerous work until they become names known throughout the city.
FIXERS
The Middlemen
Fixers connect clients with the people capable of completing dangerous jobs.
A fixer controls information, contacts and access. In Night City, knowing who to call can be worth more than carrying a bigger gun.
AFTERLIFE
The Legend Factory
The Afterlife is more than a bar — it is a meeting point for mercenaries and a symbol of Night City's mythology.
Stories about legendary mercs become part of the culture. The dream is simple: do something big enough that the city remembers your name.
GANGS
Power at Street Level
Gangs control territory, markets, protection and violence.
From Maelstrom's extreme chrome culture to the Mox's protective roots, gangs are not interchangeable: each has its own identity, territory and internal code.
DOGTOWN // NUSA
PHANTOM LIBERTY // INTEL
Dogtown exists outside normal Night City authority, a fortified enclave where mercenaries, smugglers, private armies and political interests collide. The Phantom Liberty story expands the world beyond the usual corporate conflict into the shadow war surrounding the NUSA and its intelligence apparatus.
DOGTOWN
Lawless Territory
A place where conventional rules have limited reach.
Dogtown's economy runs on weapons, information, favors and force. It attracts people who need to disappear — or people looking for something they cannot obtain elsewhere.
NUSA
Government Power
The New United States operates through political authority, intelligence networks and military force.
The NUSA's interests bring statecraft into Night City's mercenary world, creating conflicts where the real objective may be hidden behind the visible mission.
FIA
Intelligence Operations
Agents operate in secrecy, balancing mission objectives against personal loyalty.
Phantom Liberty's espionage story shows a side of the Dark Future where information can be more dangerous than a weapon.
MYERS
Rosalind Myers
A former Militech executive and NUSA President at the center of the crisis.
Her presence in Dogtown pulls V into a conflict involving the NUSA, the FIA and competing interests inside the enclave.
DATABASE // 02
MAJOR EVENTS
01
1990s
The Collapse Begins
Economic instability, political fragmentation,
technological disruption and corporate power reshape
the United States and create the conditions for the
world known as the Dark Future.
02
2020s
The Corporate Wars
Megacorporations increasingly operate as powers unto
themselves. Conflicts involving corporations eventually
spill into cities and battlefields, turning corporate
competition into open warfare.
03
2023
The Arasaka Tower Attack
Johnny Silverhand and a group of allies launch an attack
against Arasaka in Night City. The resulting catastrophe
becomes one of the defining moments of the city's modern
history.
04
2040s
Night City Rebuilds
After devastation and political upheaval, Night City
continues rebuilding. Corporate influence returns,
while gangs, fixers and independent operators occupy
the spaces left between official institutions.
05
2077
The Konpeki Plaza Heist
V and Jackie Welles attempt to steal an experimental
Arasaka prototype. The operation collapses after
unexpected complications, leaving V with the Relic
implanted in their head.
06
2077
The Relic Crisis
The Relic contains a digital construct of Johnny
Silverhand. As the construct begins overwriting V's
personality, V searches for a way to survive while
uncovering the deeper conspiracy surrounding Arasaka.
07
2077
Dogtown & Phantom Liberty
A covert geopolitical crisis draws V into Dogtown,
where intelligence agencies, mercenaries and political
factions collide around the fate of NUSA President
Rosalind Myers.
DATABASE // 03
HISTORICAL FIGURES
FIG. 001
Richard Night
FOUNDER // VISIONARY
The visionary behind Night City. Night imagined a city where
technology and progress could create a better future.
The reality that followed became almost the exact opposite.
FIG. 002
Johnny Silverhand
ROCKERBOY // REBEL
Frontman of SAMURAI and one of Night City's most famous
anti-corporate figures. His actions against Arasaka became
legendary, and his digital construct eventually became
intertwined with V's fate.
FIG. 003
Saburo Arasaka
ARASAKA // EMPEROR
The powerful head of the Arasaka family. His ambitions,
corporate empire and obsession with preserving identity
and power are central to the wider Arasaka story.
FIG. 004
Adam Smasher
FULL-BORG // ARASAKA ASSET
A terrifying full-body conversion and one of Arasaka's
most dangerous combat assets. Smasher represents the
extreme end of cybernetic augmentation.
FIG. 005
V
MERCENARY // PROTAGONIST
A mercenary attempting to build a reputation in Night City.
The Konpeki Plaza heist transforms V's life and places the
Relic — and Johnny Silverhand — inside their head.
FIG. 006
Rosalind Myers
NUSA // PRESIDENT
Former Militech CEO and President of the New United States.
Her presence in Dogtown becomes the catalyst for the events
of Phantom Liberty.
FIG. 007
Solomon Reed
FIA // OPERATIVE
An experienced FIA agent caught between duty, personal
loyalty and the political machinery surrounding Dogtown.
FIG. 008
Songbird
NETRUNNER // NUSA ASSET
A highly talented netrunner whose abilities make her
invaluable to the NUSA. Her relationship with V becomes
central to the Phantom Liberty storyline.
FIG. 009
Jackie Welles
MERC // V'S PARTNER
A Heywood mercenary whose loyalty and friendship with V
make him one of the defining figures of the opening act.
DATABASE // 04
POWERS OF NIGHT CITY
MEGACORPORATION
ARASAKA
A Japanese megacorporation heavily involved in security,
finance, technology and corporate power. Its history is
deeply intertwined with Night City's corporate conflicts.
MEGACORPORATION
MILITECH
A massive military technology corporation and long-time
rival of Arasaka. Its influence extends through weapons,
security and government relationships.
GANG
MAELSTROM
A violent gang known for extreme cyberware modification,
brutality and an obsession with pushing the limits of
human-machine integration.
GANG
THE MOX
A gang with roots in protecting sex workers and people
vulnerable to exploitation. Judy Álvarez is closely
associated with the Mox.
NOMAD CLAN
ALDEcaldos
A nomad family whose members value independence and life
outside the control of megacorporations. Panam Palmer is
one of their prominent members.
MERCENARIES
EDGERUNNERS
Independent operators living on the edge of society.
Their work can involve theft, protection, sabotage,
assassination, netrunning and corporate espionage.
