http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/Cyberpunk2077CorposAndCorporations

In the City of Dreams, anyone who's anyone knows that the megacorps are the top of the food chain, and messing with them is a good way to get flatlined fast. But for those savvy and skilled enough, working for (or stealing from) the corps can earn you some big money — and a big name. The following are the Corporations of Cyberpunk 2077, and the major characters within them:

open/close all folders

Major Corporations

In General

Corrupt Corporate Executive: This is the natural state for most corporate employees in Night City. The "lifepaths" trailers and interviews surrounding them establish that well. In the Corpo life path, V's boss sends them to kill his boss so he won't get in trouble for assassinating an entire boardroom, then frames V for the whole thing to avoid any consequences (though in-game it's framed as said target finding out about the hit herself and taking you both out).
Evil, Inc.: As common for a Cyberpunk setting, all corporations are brutally amoral with closets that are overflowing with skeletons. Arasaka is just the most obvious since it's the biggest one in the setting and the one the player deals with the most in the main story. Whilst in the Phantom Liberty expansion, Militech is given more focus with the player dealing with that faction more.
Evil vs. Evil: Many of the mega-corps are engaged in a long-running series of espionage, wetworks, murder, sabotage, thievery, and even outright war, as seen in the Fourth Corporate War. While they're responsible for much of the luxuries and pleasures V has and they have the option of working with them (though out of necessity), the game has no qualms about how the bottom-line is their priority in the end.
N.G.O. Superpower: It's established in the lore book that Arasaka and Militech were the two main combatants during the Fourth Corporate War, and as of 2077, Arasaka has at least one carrier battle group (with its flagship, the Kujira, docking in Night City at the start of the game). More broadly, the distinction between corporations and governments in the Dark Future has largely evaporated, or sometimes reasserted itself with corps taking the more powerful position - see One Nation Under Copyright below.
One Nation Under Copyright: By 2077, state power has decayed so badly that it's less that corporations gain power and legitimacy from government funding, and more that governments (and entire countries) gain power and legitimacy from corporate backing. The most famous examples are the NUSA (semi-formally run by Militech) and Japan (informally run by Arasaka), but there are other examples like China (Kang Tao) and the USSR (SovOil). The incessant third-world bush-wars on continents like Africa and South America are also largely about business rivalries boiling over into state-level conflict, with the countries there essentially being fortified corporate colonies for international superpowers.
Villain with Good Publicity: It's referenced in the Cyberpunk 2077 Handbook that the megacorps of Night City control many of the media sources in the New United States, allowing them to hide evidence of their crimes from the public eye.

Arasaka

In General

Arasaka Corporation

A massive Japanese zaibatsu with presence in nearly every industry imaginable and a security force large enough to rival the militaries of many nation-states. It was founded in 1915 by Sasai Arasaka, but remained rather small manufacturing company, until in 1960 Saburo Arasaka, son of Sasai and a former fighter pilot in the IJN, stepped in.

Animal Motifs: Venomous snakes. Jackie compares them to a viper pit in the corpo prologue and the official cover for "A Like Supreme", a song about the woes of living under megacorps features a cobra being disemboweled by a samurai sword. Wakako's contact icon features a snake, and she's closely associated with the Tyger Claws, who are stated to be sponsored by Arasaka. Johnny has a tattoo of a cobra on his right palm, with the letters "F. S" above it, presumably standing for "Fuck 'Saka" (or "Fuck Saburo").
Cyber Ninja: Aside from their regular forces they also have cybernetically-enhanced ninjas at their deploy, including the fullborg ninja master Kagekaze.
Doom Troops: Fittingly enough, their private army resembles armored samurai, even complete with menpō (samurai facial armor).
Elaborate Underground Base: Izanagi, the main Mikoshi access point, is located right under Arasaka Tower, surrounded by a highly intricate netrunning facility.
Enemy Civil War: For a time after the Fourth Corporate War and Kei's death, a low-key power struggle had existed between Yorinobu, Hanako and Michiko over who would succeed Saburo. By 2077, this seems to have faded into irrelevance, with Saburo still in charge and Yorinobu firmly slated to be his heir. Until the latter kills him anyway.
Evil, Inc.: It's a corporation built on the foundations of Japanese Imperialism and world domination with the ultimate goal of creating a form of immortality only accessible by the richest people in the world.
Evil Tower of Ominousness: Wouldn't be an Evil, Inc. without one. Specifically, they are the owners of Arasaka Tower, a gigantic (around 624 meters, or 2034 feet) black brutalist building, serving as their American headquarters and being the tallest building in Night City.
Family Business: The Arasaka family is still in charge, with Saburo at the top and his descendants Yorinobu, Hanako and Michiko on the board.
Japan Takes Over the World: They are Japanese owned and easily the most prominent megacorporation in the setting. Arasaka represents a lot of the fears of this from The '80s and have managed to actually bring it about in the video game's setting.
- However, if Takemura is to be believed, Japan hasn't benefitted at all from Arasaka's growing power, and in fact, seems to have been drained of its resources by the megacorp. Which is pretty Ironic, considering Saburo's original goal was to make Japan a world power.
Meaningful Name: Their name is derived from the Arisaka rifle used by Imperial Japan.
MegaCorp: They are the biggest and the most powerful corporation in the story, having its hands on as many industries as possible, from private security to software development. The Nightcity.LOVE promotional website emphasizes this — scrolling through it eventually leads to a fake "pop-up" advertising their home security systems, and the bottom of the page shows that the entire site was built on Arasaka software.
N.G.O. Superpower: With the United States government being a mere shadow of its former self, they practically run Night City. The promotional lore book establishes that the threat of their intervention in the Second American Civil War was enough to scare the American military away from Night City.
One Nation Under Copyright: Just as Militech runs the NUSA, the Arasakas are functionally the royal family of Japan - Saburo is not called the 'Emperor' for nothing. Night City is halfway between a corporate freeport and a Japanese imperial colony.
Peace & Love Incorporated: Downplayed. While not made front and center, Arasaka's pretensions to integrity and of helping Night City's people when the rest of America seemingly failed them are a recurring thread in its PR spin most notably seen during Saburo Arasaka's eulogy on TV. It doesn't take much, however, to see how false that narrative is.
Private Military Contractors: As early as 1970, Arasaka had expanded into this field by setting up Arasaka Security. What started out as simply offering high-quality protection has since evolved into one of the most potent corporate military assets in the world.
Putting on the Reich: Together with Militech, they're the chief trendsetters for the technofascist 'neomilitarist' aesthetic, although theirs is more a sci-fi mishmash of medieval and 1930s/40s Japanese military fashion than their American archfoes' straightforward 'space Nazi' style.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Red and black are the Arasaka corporate colors, in case you needed any further indication that they're the primary antagonistic faction.
Repressive, but Efficient: Arasaka is one of the most powerful corporations in the world with incredible wealth, superior technology, and some of the nicest buildings in the otherwise hellish Night City. They are also the world's primary economic and political power, only rivaled by Militech. Its members live extremely well and much of the world does its best to become its employees while its existing employees tend to be fanatical in its service.
- Fascist, but Inefficient: Conversations with Goro, though, indicate that Japan is actually no better off than Night City in terms of poverty as well as the distribution of wealth. Indeed, Night City is in large part such a hellish city because of Arasaka's prominence. Arasaka sucks its locations dry and makes them much worse.
Satanic Archetype: The aptly called "The Devil" ending has Arasaka (through Hellman or Takemura at the order of Hanako) offer V a contract: their mortal life for a promise of eternal life. V has no guarantee that Arasaka will uphold their end of the bargain (engrams currently don't have any rights) and it's confirmed in the official strategy guide discussing this ending that V would "spend eternity ensnared as an engram inside Mikoshi." This fits into the whole Deal with the Devil motif this ending has. Other than that, Arasaka has a snake motif and their main colors are red and black (though there are some instances where characters associated with Arasaka wear white, like Hanako's dress or Takemura's suit in "The Devil", harking back to Lucifer's literal meaning, "Light Bringer".)
Simple, yet Opulent: Befitting its Japanese origins, Arasaka's general aesthetic leans towards a clean if coldly imposing blend of the traditional and modern. Konpeki Plaza in particular is exemplary in this regard - a hotel filled with tidy hallways, spacious suites and natural lighting, nearly all of which are luxuries for many in Night City.
Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Well into 2077 they are still run by an old Japanese Imperialist.
Theme Naming: Most of Arasaka's manufactured weapons are named after Japanese samurai and motifs.
War Memorial: Arasaka converted the site of its original North American HQ, which was ground zero for the nuke blast in 2023, into a large preserved memorial in the current Corpo Plaza.

Executives

Saburo Arasaka

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cp2077_arasakasaburo.png

"I have found that people lie, most often deceiving themselves. Not so the dead... The dead are so very, very loud. And yet, lying is not in their nature. It is so... Humbling - to listen to the dead speak."

Voiced by: Masane Tsukayama

"Either you let yourself be fooled like children or you were guided by opportunism."

A former WWII fighter pilot and the current CEO of Arasaka Corporation, Saburo is still around in 2077, ruling Night City with an iron grip. He is also referred to as "The Emperor" by both his subordinates and the lowly folk he lords over.

Ace Pilot: Back in World War II days he was a renowned naval aviator with over 20 confirmed kills.
Actually Pretty Funny: If V takes the Cool dialog option to flip him off for Johnny when talking to Saburo's Engram, he reacts with an amused chuckle.
Affluent Ascetic: Subverted, in that while Saburo is definitely not an ascetic, according to his personal bodyguard, Goro Takemura, Saburo's apparently favorite meals are rather humble and simple. His favorite appetizer being simple Umeboshi, a popular and common side-dish in Japanese cuisine. And Takemura goes onto say that one time he saw Saburo chewing on something, with a look of pride on his face...
Takemura: It was a protein bar...
V: (Incredulous chuckle) ...Saburo Arasaka? With a protein bar? Get outta here...
Takemura: (Smiles) Like a true soldier...
A God Am I: Mikoshi, the intermediary repository for engrams captured by Soulkiller, has the ultimate function of being such an intermediary for Saburo when he uses it to defy death. The meaning of the word "Mikoshi" states that it is a portable Shinto shrine for transferring the essence of a deity, sometimes to a new shrine. The choice of terminology, on top of being the de facto leader (despite retirement) of the most powerful megacorp in the world, indicates Saburo's god complex.
Alas, Poor Villain: Despite his numerous sins, one can pity his death since he dies at his son's hands after directly telling Takemura that he believes Yorinobu would never harm him. His last action is to feebly reach out for his son's face in seeming disbelief.
Asshole Victim: He's an abusive parent, an Imperialist and a Corrupt Corporate Executive responsible for the direct and indirect suffering of billions. The only ones who mourn him are Takemura and Hanako. All V cares about is that the poor timing of his murder indirectly leads to Jackie's death and their own deteriorating condition.
Back from the Dead: It's revealed in the Devil ending that Saburo made an Engram of himself prior to his murder, which he uses to contact Hanako and give her instructions. Later on, he takes over Yorinobu's body, using it as his vessel and effectively killing him.
The Bad Guy Wins: In the Devil ending, he successfully resurrects himself and cements his dominance over Arasaka, and in turn Arasaka's dominance over the world.
Believing Their Own Lies: To some extent, he still believes that he's upholding Japanese pride and avenging its defeat in the Second World War, even long after Motive Decay had set in, being more concerned about his personal power than anything else.
Best Served Cold: Long after World War II ended, he's still shown to bear a grudge against Westerners and especially Americans for his country's defeat. So much so that his tenure in running Arasaka is partially aimed at avenging Imperial Japan's honor, permanently.
Bilingual Dialogue: Unlike his descendants, who speak English when appropriate, Saburo only speaks in Japanese likely because of his extremely nationalistic beliefs and partially because since everyone has an internal translator it's completely irrelevant what language he uses. Saburo is an especially notable case because he is always voiced by Masane Tsukuyama, and therefore speaks Japanese in all language dubs. The trope itself is averted if the Japanese dub is used, and the significance behind him speaking Japanese is lost.
Career-Ending Injury: Back in the 1942 his Zero was accidentally hit by US Wildcat fighter, that wasn't even aiming at it. Resulting injuries left Saburo crippled, discharged from the service and unable to fly again.
Character Death: Yorinobu kills him by smashing his head against a screen and strangling him. Or at least his old physical body, as he had a personality construct made before his demise. He's uploaded into his son's body should he live and Hanako's plan be followed.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: As always, he is a power-hungry businessman who rules one of the most powerful (and most vicious) corporations in the world and in the "Devil" ending sells the process for immortality via Brain Uploading to the richest people in the world, while keeping it out of the hands of the impoverished.
Cult of Personality: By 2077, Saburo's name and face are almost as synonymous with Arasaka as the MegaCorp's iconography. It's not for nothing that he's called "the Emperor" by many in-universe or that he's almost worshipped within his corporation.
Didn't See That Coming: Of all the various threats and enemies he's faced in his long life, Saburo had never expected his own blood to kill him. When Yorinobu does precisely that, there's a moment of genuine shock on his face.
The Dreaded: Saburo is feared as much as he's praised. Tellingly, when he or rather, his engram chews out his MegaCorp's own board of directors, the bunch tellingly become much more docile than when dealing with Hanako.
The Emperor: Is the CEO of the corporation that runs the world, making him functionally this (though in-universe the Japanese Imperial Family still exist, albeit with close ties to Arasaka). He is even called "the Emperor" by numerous people in-story.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His daughter, Hanako, specifically states that Saburo values family, and it's shown; despite how disappointed he is in his son it's clear there's still some care there given that he refuses his bodyguard's insistence on scanning for dangers. His own son wouldn't harm him. Even after Yorinobu chokes him out anyways his last action is to feebly reach out to his son's face before being killed.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- A hidden journal entry that you can find reveals that his warship, the Kujira, stopped near a Militech facility out in the Pacific Ocean, one that was implied to be built over an old World War 2 naval base and site of a major battle between the Imperial Japanese and the United States. He briefly seriously considered attacking the base with the Kujira's weaponry, but ultimately he stayed his own hand—not for the international incident it would cause, but because of the presence of innocent civilians at the base. Apparently even with his twisted ideals, blatantly attacking civilians is still something even he wouldn't do without a good reason.
- As much as Saburo wants people to obey his every word, he also wants them to be competent at it and self-aware enough to know their place. Thus, he has little patience for bumbling sycophants and opportunists simply trying to suck up to him. His uploaded consciousness is certainly disappointed with much of Arasaka's board of directors in that regard.
- Saburo may be ambitious and power-hungry in his quest to ensure permanent Arasaka hegemony, but compared to Militech and NUSA President Myers he's not going to toy with breaching the Blackwall to achieve that.
Evil Old Folks: He's over one hundred and fifty years old and still hurting the world through his Evil, Inc..
Evil Sounds Deep: Courtesy of Masane Tsukayama, Saburo Arasaka speaks in a deep and intimidating tone. Befitting for a man considered the most powerful corpo on Earth.
Evil Virtues: Saburo also considers honesty to be an important virtue, almost as much as compliance and competence. His engram, notably, is pleasantly impressed if V is not only hostile to him but even flipping him off.
Expy: A lot of Saburo's personality and traits are shared by Zouken Matou from Fate/stay night, another villain that Masane Tsukayama voiced. Both are extremely ancient men who seek immortality, try to groom their offspring to be their successors, view their daughters as a better successor than their sons, and wish to become immortal by committing a Grand Theft Me on their offspring, although Zouken wanted his granddaughter's body while Saburo wanted his son's.
Family-Values Villain: While Saburo isn't exactly the best patriarch to his children, he consistently refuses to raise his hand against them either, as a part of him does genuinely care for his family.
Fatal Flaw: Saburo has a well deserved reputation for cruelty and brutality. That said he has never been able to raise his hand against his family. Even when his other son Kei signed Yorinobu's death warrant, he couldn't go through with it. This was compounded once his eldest, Kei, died. The grief effectively prevented him from moving against Yorinobu regardless of his constant rebellion. In fact his diary reveals he wasn't even sure what he was going to do when Yorinobu stole the relic.
Foil: To Johnny Silverhand. Both men went to war and came home with crippling injuries and new ideas about what the world should be like, and founded an organization that could make these ideas real. Saburo doubled down on his Japanese ethnonationalism and set out to amass power through the Arasaka corporation that could restore what he percieved as Japan's rightful place as masters of the world. Johnny, on the other hand, became disillusioned with power as a concept, started a band and began actively spreading anarchist and anti-corporate messages.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Since at least the 1960s, Saburo is shown donning spectacles of some kind, which further highlight his sinister and dreadful reputation.
Godzilla Threshold:
- The databank in his personal carrier contains a few journal entries, all penned by Saburo himself. The last entry has him briefly contemplating wiping Night City off the map if it means none of his rivals can get their hands on the Relic or the "Secure Your Soul" program in general.
- Given his unwillingness to harm his own children after Saburo's death, his engram not only goes along with Hanako's plan of having Yorinobu's body be his host but actively pushes it.
Grand Theft Me: In the Devil ending, he takes over Yorinobu's body, using it as his new vessel to ensure his control over Arasaka.
Greater-Scope Villain: Although he's taken out by his son Yorinobu at the end of Act I, him kidnapping Alt, and turning her and Johnny Silverhand into AI constructs as part of a half-century long project to achieve immortality (but planning to only offer it to those who could afford his pricetag) has him setting all the dominos just before they start to fall, with him coming back in the "Devil" ending where V unintentionally helps him complete the "Secure Your Soul" project, taking over his son's body in the process.
Heir Club for Men: Subverted. As far as anyone knew, ever since Kei's death, Saburo had been grooming Yorinobu to inherit the MegaCorp by virtue of being the eldest male child left alive, which would be in-character for someone alive during World War II and still adhering to Imperial Japanese norms. In actuality, he has no plans of giving up power, aiming to instead rule in-perpetuity. He nonetheless considers Hanako a better would-be successor and heir, and it's through her that his Engram succeeds in "resurrecting" himself in the Devil ending.
Hypocrite: He absolutely demonizes Johnny Silverhand for detonating a nuclear warhead beneath the Arasaka Tower some fifty years ago, making sure everyone short of the edgerunners spreading his legend should know him as little more than a terrorist. Part of the background lore for why Arasaka was so damaged in the aftermath of the nuke, however, was because Saburo had to argue with Militech for both of them having nukes in the first place; the tower had been rigged with a warhead as a scorched earth policy in a worst case scenario. Covering up the legal ramifications of an active nuke in a major population center forced him to cut the North American Operations for a while and be unable to scapegoat anyone but Johnny for the event, letting others involved like Morgan Blackhand get off scot-free. On Saburo's personal carrier, V can even find a journal entry in which he briefly entertains simply wiping Night City off the map as a last resort to deny his rivals access to the Relic or the "Secure Your Soul" program in general.
I Control My Minions Through...: Fear. This is revealed to be the reason why Yorinobu rebelled against his father; Saburo metaphorically explained that he treats people like (white) flags and fear as the wind that blows them in the direction of his choosing. Then Saburo blew in Yorinobu's face. Yorinobu's entire motivation is about helping the world overcome this fear.
Immortality Immorality: The endgame of Saburo's "Secure Your Soul" project is to perfect the art of Brain Uploading, proving it in the "Devil" ending by taking over Yorinobu's body. Any illusions that he'd use this technology for a greater good is thrown out the window when he only offers it to whoever can afford the astronomically high pricetag, barring the majority of the world's poor from ever getting it, while ensuring the world's financial and political elite can buy eternal life.
Interrogating the Dead: It's implied that contrary to Johnny's memories, Saburo had his engram interrogated as part of the merciless experimentation done over the course of fifty years.
Ironic Name: Not Saburo himself, but his sword: Satori in Japanese means awakening, understanding or enlightenment, which Saburo, being an obstinate, set-in-his-ways, diehard traditionalist that keeps the world in an iron grip within his imperialist dream, is hardly a good poster grandpa for.
Irony: Saburo loathes Americans, stating "I hate America, I will bring them to their knees by supplying them with everything they want, and then strangling them with their own dependency. I will sell them the chain by which they will bind themselves to me." Yet he owes his life and continued existence to the American, V. Furthermore he makes an exception for Japanese-Americans as he seemingly holds no ill will towards his American granddaughter, Michiko Sanderson, nor her husband Marc.
It's All About Me: At least as Yorinobu sees it, for all Saburo's grandstanding about fighting "barbarians" and preserving Japanese honor in perpetuity, all he ever cared about was himself and his legacy.
It's Personal: With Johnny Silverhand. Saburo barely knew Johnny existed until he blew up Arasaka tower. When Johnny blew the tower it cost Saburo a fifth of his company and all North American Operations. Consequently, Saburo not only oversaw Johnny's death personally though he wasn't there himself to see Johnny being fatally wounded, but he actually had Johnny consciousness both mercilessly tortured and experimented on for the next fifty years. Despite this Johnny's memory still haunts him, and actually caused him to avoid Night City until Yorinobu stole the relic.
Katanas Are Just Better: His Iconic Weapon is a early-20th century Katana called Satori that V can only get during the Konpeki Plaza heist. The 2.0 update also gives him a personal dagger named Nehan that you can loot from his corpse.
Motive Decay: When he became the CEO of Arasaka Corp., he wanted to see Japan as the world economic superpower, no matter at what cost, to avenge his country's humiliating defeat at the end of World War II. While he still pays lip service to advancing Japanese interests and to some extent believes himself to still be doing so, he's since settled for his company, and himself specifically, being the wealthiest and most powerful in the world.
Nazi Grandpa: Saburo is a Japanese Imperialist, with his rule over Arasaka being in part an attempt at recreating those old ideals. While he still bears personal resentment towards America, by 2077 the only visible indicator of it is calling westerners (and Americans specifically) "barbarians" as well as reciting the old proverb of "The nail that sticks out gets hammered" that is largely associated with Japanese collectivism. He's also still wearing his old dog tags.
Nostalgia Filter: Even by 2077, he still pines wistfully for an Imperial Japan that no longer exists. Yorinobu, however, derides this as delusional folly when confronting his father.
Offing the Offspring: In The Devil ending his digital construct conspires with Hanako to upload his consciousness into his son Yorinobu's body, killing his son in the process. Partially understandable as by that point the only reason his physical body had died was because Yorinobu had murdered him first.
Older Than He Looks: He looks old, but by no means does he look like he's a century and a half, and indeed seems to be looking better than he did in the tabletop game.
Really 700 Years Old: The game's Facebook page reveals that he was born in 1919, which makes him over a century and a half old in the game.
Red Baron: He is called The Emperor by many people and it's well-earned because his corporation gives him more political and military power than most of the empires throughout human history. Jackie will casually mention that Saburo could turn "half the planet into a nuclear wasteland with a snap of his fingers."
Red Right Hand: Notably averted; during his death scene his left hand is visible and clearly organic, not the chrome cybernetic he'd had back in 2020.
Smug Snake: He is very condescending and presents an immensely intimidating persona, fitting for the most powerful man in the world. He also talks down to V in the 'Devil' ending, which is the only ending where Saburo actually comes out on top and the only reason he does is because of the person he's talking shit to. As powerful and invincible as he likes to present himself, he is very dependent on outside factors for success. In the other endings he loses to Yorinobu.
Something Only They Would Say: When one of the Arasaka board members calls out Saburo's engram for being just a recording or some electronic sleight-of-hand, he immediately dissuades that notion by chewing the man out over his lack of competence and referencing a conversation that only the real deal could have known.
Sophisticated as Hell: Played With. Saburo is a dignified old man whose speech is much more formal than the rest of the cast. However, when he or rather his uploaded conscience calls out one of his board members, the subtitle claims that the aforementioned lacks "confidence, intelligence, and a dick.". It's Played With because what he actually says is "guts" or "a spine", but CDPR played with the translation.
The Stoic: Saburo never raises his voice, and always maintains a cool, collected persona.
Tarot Motifs: "The Emperor". That's how he's called multiple times during the game, and the graffiti for the card can be found in Konpeki Plaza, where we first see him in person. It symbolises authority, father figures, discipline and a firm hand; reversed, it can mean abuse and overreach of power, possessiveness and lack of self-control. Saburo holds the entire Night City in an iron grip. His son, Yorinobu, hates him for that.
Tranquil Fury: In 2023, Saburo asked a captured Johnny Silverhand one calm, yet very pointed question in Japanese that betrays both his utter shock and anger.
Saburo Arasaka: "Why did you do this?"
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Defied. Saburo's engram, his uploaded consciousness, is so thoroughly complete in every respect that for all intents and purposes, it is Saburo.
Withholding the Cure: If V helps him to finish the "Secure Your Soul" project, he now holds control over what is effectively immortality in his hands, which he sells to whoever can pay him. Unfortunately, the pricetag he attaches ensures nobody but the richest of Cyberpunk's world (and/or those whom he favors) will ever get their hands on it, cursing the poor to die while giving the rich the power to purchase eternal life. A notable aversion to this is V themselves, as they get offered a spot on the "Secure Your Soul" project free of charge, and it's up to the player on whether to accept or decline that offer.
Villainous Respect: Saburo actually respects V if they are hostile to him, even laughing if V flips him off during their meeting.

Yorinobu Arasaka

"You shall never have to forgive me for anything again."

Voiced by: Hideo Kimura (English), Robert Tondera (Polish)^note

"You see, that's your problem. You think the whole world revolves around you. Arrogant."

Younger son of Saburo and heir to the Arasaka Corporation, Yorinobu is actually working against him in secret to wrench his family's tyrannical grip over much of the world.

Alas, Poor Villain: In The Devil ending, which is also the only ending where he dies or even meets V face-to-face. While he's nominally been the main antagonist of the game, he reveals to V that his motivation for everything he did was to destroy Arasaka from the inside by forcing the world to wage war against it. The last time you see him, it's clear he's lost all hope and just rests his head in the lap of his beloved younger sister, admitting he's tired. Later, you find out Saburo Arasaka's digital construct has taken over Yorinobu's body to continue running his corporation from beyond the grave, literally turning Yorinobu into the very thing he sought to destroy.
Ambiguously Evil: It's actually questionable how evil Yorinobu is. The only reason he's an antagonist is because V and Jackie happened to be extremely convenient for pinning the blame of his father's murder. There's also the fact that V had also become allies with Goro, a man who hates him for reasons of personal loyalty. It's later revealed that he is actively trying to destroy Arasaka by actively making everyone on the planet hate them and killing all of it's board members, further making his actual evilness debatable.
Animal Motif: Hawks. The shard "Arasaka and Ornithology: Three Japanese Words to Know" states that the faction of Arasaka he's the leader of is called "taka", which means hawk in Japanese. Hawks are birds of prey, with some species' primary source of food being other birds, which shows off his more aggressive approach to how Arasaka should be reformed. It contrasts him with Hanako and Michiko, who are compared to a pheasant and a dove, respectively, two species which are much more docile and non-threatning, just like their ideas that focus on upholding the status quo or peaceful, internal reforms. Some species of hawks happily hunt reptiles like snakes, showing off Yorinobu's hatred towards Arasaka (which has a snake motif) and how much he wants to tear it down.
Anti-Villain: This is Yorinobu at his worst. While he may have good intentions about destroying Arasaka, doing so by killing all of it's board members, which included his niece (unless her survival was more than a coincidence), ensured that even with the best intentions, he was still willing to kill a bunch of people to ensure his vision of a better world. "The Tower" ending drives this home; if Yorinobu's plan goes about near-unimpeded, it functionally destroys Arasaka and baits the other Corps into battling it out over the resulting power vacuum, effectively crippling the city's autonomy and paving the way for the NUSA to reunify America. This all comes at the cost of a lot of dead bodies, an emboldened Militech and NUSA poised seize victory, and Night City spending its final years as an even worse place than it already was as it enters its death spiral. But all things considered, it's hard to not feel that it all would've happened anyways and Yorinobu just ripped the bandaid to minimize the harm done. Ultimately, the story leaves it up to the player to decide whether or not Yorinobu's actions are justified or not.
Apple of Discord: The Tower ending reveals that the power vacuum left behind by Arasaka results in various corporations squabbling yet unable to fully fill it, while Night City convulses in the process. Whether Yorinobu had intended to drag them down through infighting as part of his scheme, just wanted to get rid of the city itself for being a Wretched Hive, or even considered the possibility of this happening is left vague, as he's neither present to reveal his precise plans nor in a position of power.
The Bad Guy Wins: In every ending besides The Devil he wins completely. Not only is Arasaka crippled due to the loss of Mikoshi but both Hanako and Takemura, the greatest threats to his takeover, are killed by Alt Cunningham (Hanako) or during Hanako's rescue/by committing seppuku (Takemura). Of course how 'bad' he actually is could be debated considering his motives. The Tower ending from Phantom Liberty also has him come out on top, though his success is lukewarm as he's deposed as CEO, though not before crippling the company to the point Arasaka has lost a great deal of corporate-political power.
Bad Liar: His explanation for Saburo's death being due to poisoning is extremely paper thin and it's clear that Takemura doesn't believe him for a second. Hanako reveals later that no one who actually cared bought it at all and they either follow along either due to being cowed by fear or because of the benefits they gain.
Be Careful What You Wish For: The Tower ending from Phantom Liberty results in Arasaka's withdrawal from Night City and a loss of considerable corporate power. Exactly as what Yorinobu had hoped to achieve, only that he winds up being quietly deposed as CEO, while facing the prospect of an emboldened Militech and NUSA sensing weakness, if not a Fifth Corporate War in which Arasaka might not be able to win.
Berserk Button: Implied. While he already hates his father, what really drives him over the edge to outright murder was Saburo bringing up Yorinobu's mom and about how disappointed she'd be in him.
Big Bad: The closest thing the game has to one, as his murder of his father kicks off the main conflict of the game, and his efforts to bury the truth behind it and maintain control of Arasaka hamper V's journey every now and again. Becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist when his plans involve waging bloody war on the entire world to focus its hatred on destroying Arasaka.
Cain and Abel: A brother-sister variant. The risks he takes with his younger sister Hanako's safety make it seem like he's putting her in deliberate danger to solidify his position in Arasaka. After Yorinobu's men attack the hideout where Takemura is keeping Hanako prisoner, Hanako comes to believe the intent of his men was to kill, not to rescue her. She takes this as proof he no longer cares about family and motivates her to act against him. However, in The Devil ending, Yorinobu claims he never intended to kill her and was trying to keep her safe. In the end, Hanako is the one who ends up killing him by uploading their father's engram into Yorinobu's body.
Composite Character: Yorinobu bears a much greater resemblance to his older brother Kei's depictions in the 2020 version of the tabletop game, but still has his established dislike of his father's schemes and Arasaka in general. The game mentions that Kei's death was one of the things that pushed Yorinobu back into the fold, though, as we see, it didn't quite take.
Didn't Think This Through: A potential flaw in his plan is exposed in The Tower ending, obtained after completing Phantom Liberty and siding with Rosalind Myers. He's removed from the board as CEO after his actions cost the MegaCorp a great deal of power, to the point that they have no choice but to return to Japan. Unfortunately, this leaves behind a power vacuum for Arasaka's competitors and rivals to swoop in and fill the void they left behind. As it turns out, none of the companies that do so are able to actually take over and instead just war amongst themselves for control, bleeding themselves while the city falls apart around them.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Implied just like Berserk Button above. What really sets Yorinobu over the edge during his and Saburo's argument was the latter bringing her up and how she'd be disappointed in him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Whether or not he's "evil" is debatable, since his terrible actions are in pursuit of a greater good, but his love for his family is completely genuine. He goes into a murderous rage after being told his mother would be disappointed in him, seems to feel remorse over murdering his father even if he did hate him, and despite appearances to the contrary, he never intended to hurt his sister Hanako, whom he truly loves.
Evil vs. Evil: Depending on how one views him. While he's definitely against Saburo and Arasaka in general his methods of stopping them include kickstarting another corporate war and making Arasaka so hated that the rest of the world unites in annihilating them. Regardless of his goals, however, the loss of life if another war were to ignite would be catastrophic and it's implied he'll continue with his plans even if Mikoshi is destroyed.
Face Death with Dignity: In The Devil ending, Yorinobu tells Hanako that he knows he'll be killed for his actions and he isn't afraid. He just feels tired.
Face–Heel Turn: Yorinobu is traditionally quite a noble and heroic character in the 2020 TTRPG, where he is essentially Johnny Silverhand's counterpart in Tokyo. After learning the true nature of the Arasaka Corporation, Yorinobu was so disgusted that he broke away from his family entirely and became a founding member of gangs like the Iron Lotus and Steel Dragons which were devoted to exposing Arasaka's corruption. However, by the time of the 2077 video game, Yorinobu's personality has changed and he is the closest thing the game has to a Big Bad. Justified somewhat by the fact that his goals and motivations haven't changed at all, he's just now old enough to have seen his youthful rebellion repeatedly fail, forcing him to change tactics and reintegrate into Arasaka to try to fight his father's control from the inside. It’s actually pretty much a subversion, as he's just as determined to save the world as before and is just doing it in a different way.
Foil: To Johnny Silverhand. While they both hate Arasaka with a burning passion and rallied the populace to rebel against them Johnny died young being remembered as a terrorist while Yorinobu eventually returned to the fold and worked to disable Arasaka from within.
Former Teen Rebel: In 2020's Yorinobu was the leader of a bosozoku gang, the Steel Dragons, riding high and rebelling against his father's wishes. 50 years later, he's become more of a corpo, ditching his biker outfit for a business suit, but the rebellious streak still remains within him. Notably, he still keeps his old coat around, and can be looted from his room.
Genocide from the Inside: Yorinobu realized that the easiest way to stop Arasaka was to take the throne and drive the corporation straight into the ground. And slaughter half the corporation's personnel in the process.
Yorinobu: If planting bombs not enough, what can you do? You become bomb.
Gone Horribly Right: In the Tower ending, Yorinobu's scheme goes off almost flawlessly and winds up dealing enough of a blow to Arasaka's bottom-line that the MegaCorp is forced to withdraw from Night City. It works a little too well, as not only is he deposed as CEO, but he's forced to reckon with the prospect of a resurgent Militech and NUSA taking advantage of the chaos left behind.
Good Is Not Soft: If you view him as the true hero of the conflict. His actions are entirely benevolent in intent and he genuinely just wants to save the world from Arasaka and make a meaningful change that will finally upend the corrupt system keeping the setting trapped a Crapsack World. But he's not shy at all about the fact that his plan will potentially result in the deaths or suffering of thousands through knock-on effects alone, viewing it as a tragic Necessary Evil.
Grand Theft Me: In the Devil ending, should you follow Hanako's plan, Saburo Arasaka's digital construct is uploaded into Yorinobu's mind and effectively takes over his body.
Hand Cannon: His personal sidearm is a custom Liberty named Kongou, powerful enough to perform bullet ricochets without a dedicated upgrade.
Hero Antagonist: Somewhat of an Anti-Hero Antagonist, but his takeover of Arasaka was meant to stop Saburo's plans to finish the "Secure Your Soul" project, and save the world from being controlled by Saburo Arasaka, as revealed during his defeat in the "Devil" ending.
Hero of Another Story: How Yorinobu managed to get the Relic, along with how he came back into the fold of Arasaka Corp. would be an interesting story on its own. However, we only see the consequences from V's perspective.
Inadequate Inheritor: While Yorinobu is certainly competent, he's gradually yet purposefully invoking an image of inadequacy as part of his ploy to destroy Arasaka from within. As the Tower ending reveals, this can go a bit too well.
Internal Reformist: Since the days of his TTRPG counterpart, this Yorinobu attempts to change and reform Arasaka from within, building up support among the senior executives and preparing to oust his father.
Interrupted Suicide: By the time V corners him, Yorinobu's plans have been dashed and a gun with a single bullet is by his side. He assures V it's not meant for them.
Karma Houdini: Gets away completely scot free in every ending except The Devil and even uses his sister's death for sympathy. However, since he's arguably the least evil of the Arasakas (and actually hates everything his family stands for) and opposes their plans to finish the “Secure Your Soul” project how much karma he is due outside of killing Saburo at the wrong time is debatable.
- It is discussed even earlier. When you meet at the rooftop market, Takemura points out that Saburo could have crushed Yorinobu and the Steel Dragons at any time and place of his choosing, but chose to let his son continue to kill and destroy Arasaka assets because he was loath to kill his own son. And when Yorinobu came back to the fold, Saburo wanted to see Yorinobu punished, but Hanako convinced him to stay his hand. All this boils down to that Yorinobu has been shielded from the consequences of his two major life decisions.
Kick the Dog: Yorinobu's treatment of Takemura immediately after Saburo's death, telling him to do a better job of protecting those he's sworn to protect. What makes this a Kick the Dog is that Saburo himself was the one who called Takemura away despite his protests, and Yorinobu was the one who killed Saburo to begin with (even if he knew Takemura basically supported what he despised about his family).
A Lighter Shade of Black: Yorinobu is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to trigger a war so that he can destroy Arasaka and forever free the world from its toxic influence. Saburo, meanwhile, is a despotic Corrupt Corporate Executive whose "Secure Your Soul" plan is less overtly violent, but would just further the system of greed and corruption poisoning the world by granting the rich immortality, and Hanako, while genuinely affable, ultimately follows the path her father's laid out for her. It's telling that the only ending where Yorinobu is actually overthrown is the one that holds the bleakest future for the world.
Necessarily Evil: How he views his actions, as he is ultimately just trying to stop Arasaka from taking over the world and potentially taking many other corps down with it. Whether or not his intentions and the end results justify his means is left up to player to decide.
Non-Action Big Bad: He's the closest thing the game has to a main antagonist but, aside from murdering his father, he never personally gets his hands dirty, relying on his money and resources instead. He never even meets V unless the player picks The Devil ending, where he makes no attempt to fight back when cornered.
Older Than They Look: He's 82, yet looks half that, a benefit of receiving the same kind of rejuvenation treatments and good cyberware as the rest of his family.
Patricide: While hiding in his room during the relic heist, V and Jackie witness him strangling his father to death in a fit of rage after being disowned by his father. He then claims his old man was poisoned and locks down the building.
Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Towards Saburo while strangling him to death, in response to Saburo's This Is Unforgivable! speech.
Pyrrhic Victory: As shown in The Tower ending, where V's raid doesn't happen, and Alt doesn't manage to kill off most of his rivals, Yorinobu still succeeds in crippling Arasaka to the point they're forced to leave Night City, but this doesn't make things better in the city. He lacks the political capital for a full Fifth Corporate War that might bring down Militech as well, and so a power vacuum that allows Arasaka's rivals and competitors like Militech to take their place, likely putting the city into a death spiral in the process.
Yorinobu: You shall never have to forgive me for anything ever again.
Rebel Prince: Notably toned down from his tabletop counterpart; here he's working against his father with the possible help of Arasaka insiders instead of trying to build a full-blown anti-Arasaka movement.
Silver Spoon Troublemaker: Superficially, Yorinobu looks like the problem child of the Arasaka family. This take on him is completely unaware of his seething hatred of late-stage capitalism, his family megacorp in particular, and the horrific harm it causes the world.
Token Good Teammate: While he was this in the tabletop game, he now appears to have become just another power-hungry Corpo... which is actually his plan, as he is now the only member of the Arasaka family to actively oppose the company, and to do so means he needs to do so in secrecy.
A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: His murder of Saburo was a spur of the moment decision. His behavior immediately afterwards indicates he realizes how badly he just screwed things up. He might not have been able to cover it up without V and Jackie to take the fall.
Uncertain Doom: The Tower ending reveals that Hanako and Takemura still organize an attack on Yorinobu, but without V there to help them and plugging in Alt to destroy Mikoshi, the attack fails. Yorinobu succeeds in weakening Arasaka, only to then lose his title of CEO, but it's uncertain how it happened and if he's still alive.
The Unfought: Not only does V never fight him, but in every ending other than The Devil, they never even meet Yorinobu face-to-face. This is because Yorinobu's goal to destroy Arasaka from within is completely independent from V's mission to find a cure for themselves unless they seek help from Yorinobu's sister. Even the gun that V finds him with was one that he was going to use to kill himself.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His murder of Saburo and subsequently locking down Konpeki Plaza is essentially half of what causes the plot to get rolling. The Tower ending, meanwhile, suggests that even if he gets his way unscathed, his internal takedown of Arasaka may have helped accelerate Militech and the NUSA's resurgence on the geopolitical stage.
Villain of Another Story: Yorinobu's master plan to destroy Arasaka from within by triggering a war is completely independent from V's quest to stop the Biochip in their head from killing them. In fact, V will never even find out about Yorinobu's plans unless the player sides with Hanako and triggers The Devil ending.
Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to discuss Yorinobu without major spoilers for the early game.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Intends to save the world through mass-murder. Specifically, by intentionally waging war on the entire world with Arasaka's forces, slaughtering most of the Board of Directors, and generally causing as much of a mess as he can, all so Arasaka will self-destruct. Whether this is better or worse than allowing the corp's despotic, murderous rulership of its (considerable) territory to persist ad infinitum is left up to the player - on the one hand, they'll finally be going after people who can fight back, but on the other hand, they'll finally be going after people who can fight back.
Zero-Approval Gambit: What is implied to be his ultimate goal as CEO of Arasaka Corp. His first order of business as CEO immediately puts strain on the already tenuous relationship the corporation has with Militech, and he appears to desire to make Arasaka such an aggressive despotic force that the whole world would unite to destroy it once and for all. And he no doubt knows this will end with him being remembered as the very thing he sought to destroy, another tyrant at the helm of Arasaka. But at least he would be the last.

Hanako Arasaka

"I was brought up to be the heart of the family. It is time for the Arasakas to listen to their heart."

Voiced by: Alpha Takahashi (English), Izabella Bukowska (Polish)^note

"That is a fact that my brother has never understood. I know my place, and I have no wish to change it."

Saburo's daughter and Yorinobu's younger sister, Hanako is the unofficial spokeswoman of the Arasaka Corporation. She's also a former netrunner herself before she got involved in Arasaka's politics, though her father is the true mastermind behind her actions.

Affably Evil: She's impeccably polite at all times, values family and loyalty, upholds her oaths, and comes across as a more moral person than her brother. Then it turns out, if you take her deal in The Devil ending, she's fine with murdering her brother by uploading their father's consciousness into his body, then continue her father's plan to sell immortality to the rich, all while never losing her polite disposition.
Animal Motif: The green pheasant, or "kiji". The shard "Arasaka and Ornithology: Three Japanese Words to Know" calls the faction in Arasaka that's centered on her "kiji", which is the Japanese word for the green pheasant (Phasianus versicolor). She's also stated to be the owner of the few remaining specimen, which live in her private reserve on the island of Shikoku. The species is endemic to Japan and it's also the country's national bird, showing how her outlook on Arasaka's future is tied to Saburo's conservative and nationalist outlook on the world.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed. "Nocturne Op 55 N 1" and "Last Caress" has her appear significantly more affable and outgoing towards V, coming across as genuinely wanting to help them after they help her. However, when it's clear she's still been keeping V in the dark about her plan, she slowly goes back her to polite but cold self, implying she only cared about V to the extent of their usefulness. In the "Devil" ending, while Hanako does actually fulfill her end of the bargain and even offers a job to boot, she never visits V during their treatment. Even more emphasized if Takemura's alive, where he can claim Hanako has already long forgotten about V despite everything they did.
Cain and Abel: She eventually comes to believe that Yorinobu wants her dead, which is the catalyst for her teaming up with V. Ironically, Yorinobu never wanted her dead and says everything he did was to keep her safe, and while Hanako tells V not to harm a hair on her brother's head, she ends up killing Yorinobu by uploading their father's consciousness into his body.
Composite Character: Like Yorinobu, she combines aspects of their older brother, Kei. Hanako embodies his loyalty to their father.
Consolation Prize: In the Devil ending, through either Takemura or Hellman, Hanako offers V a free spot in Arasaka's "Secure Your Soul" program as not only her idea of compensation for not being able to cure them, but also as a better "alternative" to eventual death.
Daddy's Little Villain: Hanako is devoted to her father and does whatever he says regardless of her feelings or how immoral they may be. Played with as she never believed the cover story, although she didn't want to believe her brother was responsible, and was just as willing to let Saburo's mind rot in Mikoshi and let her brother take over the company. However, she soon realized Yorinobu plans involved the atomization of Arasaka and mistook his rescue attempt as an assassination. She then decides to assist in helping Saburo's mind to retake Arasaka. She even conspires with Saburo's digital ghost to "resurrect" him by uploading him into Yorinobu's body.
Deal with the Devil: Fittingly, following her plan in the final mission leads to the "Devil" ending, where Hellman or Takemura offers V to become part of the Secure Your Soul program on her behalf.
The Dragon: Was this to Saburo while he was alive. She then tries to be this to her brother, but his actions cause her to switch back to Saburo. Even after his death, she's completely subservient to her father, and follows the instructions of his digital "ghost" to help bring him back to power.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Matching her 2020 tabletop personality, she is fiercely loyal to all her family. Even though Yorinobu and Saburo have a tense relationship she loves them both, even being the only family member that Yorinobu made contact with during his time in exile. However, after Yorinobu kills Saburo she is willing to use Saburo's personality construct to pull a Grand Theft Me on Yorinobu, effectively killing her brother to bring her father back.
Face–Heel Turn: In the original 2020 tabletop game, Hanako was in opposition to Saburo's ambitions, and had her own agenda. By 2077, she is now fully obedient to Saburo, to the point she helps him upload his personality construct into Yorinobu's body, and complete his plans of the "Secure Your Soul" program, before gating it off to whoever can't meet Arasaka's astronomically steep price tag for the process.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's publicly known as the Responsible Sibling to Yorinobu's Foolish, as she devotes herself to continuing her father's work while Yorinobu resents it and spends most of his time engaging in various pastimes. The ending, however, suggests that Yorinobu is wiser and has a broader sense of responsibility than she does, becoming a Well-Intentioned Extremist Visionary Villain while she lets herself remain a cog in a profoundly evil and parasitic machine.
I Gave My Word: Hanako is implied to be perfectly sincere in her promise to help out V in the "Devil" ending. When it turns out that V's body cannot be saved and they'll die in a few weeks, V can accuse Hellman/Takemura and Hanako of manipulating them in order to keep them imprisoned in Mikoshi. They counter that the Arasaka family has no motivation to do so, given they've already won and ascended to godhood, indicating that Hanako genuinely believed she was doing V a favor by offering her a spot on the "Secure Your Soul" program. This is further bolstered by the fact that she'll still offer V a cushy job at Arasaka even if they refuse her initial offer and return to Earth instead.
Gilded Cage: Implied. Hanako is rarely seen outside the Arasaka family estates without a large security detail, and even then, all public information about her is heavily curated. So much so, that the last time someone tried to make a biography of her, the author was later found to have conveniently committed suicide.
Gold and White Are Divine: The daughter of the most powerful man on the planet (Who has unlocked the secret to immortality) sports a white dress and has gold trimmings on her hands and arms.
Informed Ability: The supplemental material mentions that she is a genius netrunner. While mentioned by Mark Muratovich in a Ziggy Q interview, V sees nothing of this. Not better than Alt anyway.
Killed Offscreen: In any ending besides The Devil, she's mentioned as having died at Arasaka Tower in the epilogue news reports. The balance of evidence, however, suggests that Yorinobu used the chaos to quietly assassinate her at the family's private estate - the Devil ending path makes it clear that there was no way for her to get to the Tower without your help, and Yorinobu has prior form on offing family members under dubious pretences.
Light Is Not Good: Her main color motif is gold and white, and while she's very much Affably Evil, she's still an heiress to the Arasaka corporation who sees nothing wrong with their practices and what it does to the world and ordinary people and has no qualms about killing Yorinobu to implant him with the biochip with Saburo's engram on it. In The Tower she and Takemura organize an attack on Arasaka tower to bring down Yorinobu. Without V it fails miserably and while Takemura survives, Hanako does not.
Male Gaze: Hanako has a very shapely form and her dress brings it out even more. Similar to Panam, it's especially noticeable when it comes to her butt.
Metaphorically True: Hanako does promise to help V in the Devil ending, but never commits to actually curing them or Arasaka being capable of doing so, instead offering a free spot in the "Secure Your Soul" program.
Older Than They Look: She's pushing 78 as of 2077, and yet looks barely half that age.
Sheltered Aristocrat: Played With. Her PR image even by 2077 is still that of a fairly reclusive lady who's rarely seen outside the Arasaka family estates without a large security detail. Not only is she far less naive than in her youth, however, but she actively exploits this public image to deflect suspicion.
Tarot Motifs: "The High Priestess". You can find the corresponding graffiti in the apartment building that the mission called "Search And Destroy", the one where we get to meet her for the first time, takes place. It represents intuition, divine feminine, subconscious mind, patience, mystery and wisdom; reversed, it symbolises secrets, disconnection from intuition, withdrawal and silence. Hanako was raised to be the heart of the Arasaka family and keep it together. This role has often forced her to be silent and comply with her father and brother's wishes and decisions.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In every ending except the Devil, she has no idea of the catastrophe that she'll unleash on herself and her company by telling V that there's a Mikoshi terminal in Arasaka Tower. For added dark irony, if V doesn't take her deal, they end up accidentally helping and protecting Yorinobu, the only person in the corporation who Hanako actually wanted punished.
Walking Spoiler: Much like Yorinobu, it's impossible to explain much of Hanako's actions without spoiling much of the game, in this case the final act of the game, and especially the events of the "Devil" ending.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Hanako has fully matured into becoming one and is deeply devoted to her family, and especially her father. Her loyalty to Saburo is so strong that she willingly obeys his word even beyond death.

Board of Directors

Michiko Sanderson

Michiko Sanderson (née Arasaka)

"A serious accusation, admittedly... but nothing more."

"Hanako? What are you doing here?"

Saburo's granddaughter and a prominent member of Arasaka's board of directors. She is only encountered if V takes up Hanako's offer to get rid of Yorinobu.

All Girls Want Bad Boys: She once dated Adam Smasher of all people, when she was younger (see his entry for more details).
Animal Motifs: The dove, or "hato", representing the Arasaka faction that desires peace and meaningful reforms. As a relatively-pacifist faction within a militaristic megacorp, it's no wonder that the "hato" has minimal influence within the family.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She is a frequent attendant of the biggest parties in Night City and constantly gets into drunken embarrassing stunts. Despite this, her Danger Gal firm is very well-managed and organized, and Michiko herself is a shrewd businesswoman. This is, of course, because her Hard-Drinking Party Girl reputation is an act so people underestimate her.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Downplayed. No one among the Arasakas actually wants Michiko dead as she's still family. Yet while Saburo still welcomed her into the MegaCorp with open arms, it's implied that her exploits and liberal "hato" faction are tolerated by him as a means of keeping internal dissent under control.
Demoted to Extra: Michiko leads the Arasaka family's liberal "hato" faction and her character's much more fleshed out in the Tabletop RPG. Yet in Cyberpunk 2077, she's reduced to a background NPC who only appears in the game's last act, and only if V makes a certain decision regarding the endgame.
The Fashionista: In contrast to the rest of Arasaka's board members, who are all dressed in formal corpowear, Michiko wears a very revealing neokitsch top that leaves little to the imagination, a gold skirt with matching jewelry, and even styles her hair in an eye-catching bright blue crest.
Going Native: In addition to being the most liberal and reformist within the family, Michiko is also the most pro-American, though she doesn't go overboard with it.
Internal Reformist: She's the leader of Arasaka's much more liberal hato faction, who desire an end to Arasaka engaging in corporate wars and for meaningful reforms to take place. Unsurprisingly, her faction holds the least sway and influence in the corporation.
Minor Major Character: As a member of the Arasaka family and the leader of a faction within the corporation she's fairly important to the setting. However, she has very little involvement in the main plot itself.
Morality Chain: According to Pondsmith, her relationship with Smasher was one of his last true connections to his humanity and her dumping him was one of the reasons why he dived headfirst into being a literal murder machine.
Office Lady: Michiko looked much more modest and restrained in the 2040s◊, resembling the Japanese office lady archetype rather than The Fashionista image she had taken up by 2077.
Older Than They Look: She still looks quite youthful despite being almost 70 years old by the game's timeline.
One-Steve Limit: Michiko shares her maiden name with Saburo's last wife, who is the mother of Yorinobu and Hanako - respectively, her uncle and her aunt.
Private Detective: It's mentioned that she also runs a private investigation company on the side called Danger Gal, though it doesn't factor in to the main plot.
Sole Survivor: She's the only Arasaka board member to come out unscathed during Yorinobu's attack at the board meeting in "The Devil" ending.

Employees

Goro Takemura

"Arasaka gave me what no one else could - values I could honor, live for. This was most important. You dirty your hands for money. I, in the name of principles."

Voiced by: Rome Kanda (English), Wojciech Żołądkowicz (Polish)^note

"The wider the smile, the bigger the lie."

Saburo's personal bodyguard, serving his master as a man of honor and principles.

Affably Evil: He's a charming, Endearingly Dorky and honorable gentleman who can form a genuine friendship with V. He's also the personal bodyguard to one of the greatest monsters in the setting and is unbreakably loyal to him, possibly to the point of obsession, which V cannot sway.
Ambiguously Bi: If you choose to accompany Takemura during his recon mission in "Gimme Danger", he'll text you about your conversation on the roof after the quest is completed. And in response, V, regardless of gender, can actually offer to keep Takemura company. Takemura unfortunately turns you down, though he replies that he's honored and then texts back, "Under other circumstances...", implying that he may just have taken V up on that offer if things were different.
Badass Longcoat: Wears a tattered brown one over his suit after defecting from Arasaka to bring Yorinobu to justice.
Berserk Button: Disrespecting the Arasaka family, especially Hanako. While meeting with V at a diner, he loses his temper when the diner owner refers to Hanako as a "Corpo Cunt" after turning off an interview with her on TV.
Blind Obedience:
- He is extremely loyal to Arasaka (specifically Saburo, he wishes to see Yorinobu pay for the former's murder) to the point that he can barely think about life outside working for Arasaka. When prodded, he does fondly admit that if he could have had another life, he would have liked to have been a nomad, but ultimately his loyalty to Arasaka is too strong. In the Devil ending if he is still alive and V chooses to return to Earth to live their remaining months on their own terms, they tell Takemura that while they like him, he'll never understand their decision as he has never known what freedom feels like. Lampshaded by Oda, who points out that if their situations were switched, Takemura would have killed him on the spot. Despite Oda's attitude in the scene overall, he does not suggest this is a good thing.
- "The Tower" ending added with Phantom Liberty finally sees Takemura disavowing the Arasaka Corporation after his and Hanako's failed coup against Yorinobu and being framed once again, this time for Hanako's death. This is what ultimately shatters his faith in the mega-corp.
Blood Knight: If you choose to rescue him during "Search and Destroy", he can't stop laughing as you take on an entire Arasaka kill team. He even says that he actually missed this.
Born in the Wrong Century: If Saburo Arasaka is a man who likes to live and present himself as if things never changed past the 19th century, Goro is certainly the perfect bodyguard for him. His hopelessness with technology, yearning for "real Japanese food," his outdated notion that royalty (which in the 21st century is really just "rich people") cannot be judged by normal people's standards, and his attempts at behaving like a traditional samurai all smack of this trope.
Broken Pedestal: "The Tower" ending exclusive to the expansion finally shatters Takemura's Blind Obedience to the Arasaka Corporation; not only did Hanako's coup against Yorinobu end in failure, Takemura was framed again for murdering an Arasaka executive, this time being blamed for Hanako's death. Between having failed yet another member of the Arasaka family and everyone in the company washing their hands of him, Takemura's faith in Arasaka plummets.
Brought Down to Badass: Mentions that he's lost usage of most if not all of his implants after defecting from Arasaka. Provided they have a high enough Body stat, V can tell Johnny that he's still dangerous regardless and he quickly proves himself when he successfully manages to save a critically injured V despite the Arasaka kill team sent after them, albeit with some help on V's part.
Celebrity Resemblance: Turns out that he looks like a TV host named Hideshi Hino, who an elderly local confuses him for. At the insistence of both said local and V, Takemura will even spout the comedian's catchphrase "Better buckle up". It's also an Actor Allusion to how Rome Kanda was in the reality show "I Survived a Japanese Game Show". Hideshi Hino himself shows up in Phantom Liberty and V can point out that he looks just like Goro, to which Hino states that he's always looking for a double.
Character Death: During the "Search and Destroy" mission, after Arasaka goons assault his hideout, unless you (rather than immediately running away as the game tells you to) choose to explore the burning building and save him. Additionally, any ending other than The Devil has Takemura call V, heavily implying he's about to commit suicide immediately afterwards.
The Comically Serious: Many of his text messages and interactions have him being in complete culture shock and annoyance at the Japanese segments of Night City. V can poke fun at him for it. He tends to drop it if we purposefully plays dumb, leading to some hilarious cases of Sophisticated as Hell.
Corporate Samurai: He's a special-ops soldier that serves the head of a mega-corporation.
Driven to Suicide: Heavily implied if you save him but choose any ending other than The Devil. He states that he's been looking at poems samurai made prior to committing seppuku before cursing out V and telling them to rot in hell.
Eloquent in My Native Tongue: He is clearly unused to speaking English, with a stilted structure and somewhat awkward delivery coupled with a rather blatant Japanese accent. When speaking to the Arasakas, though, he slips easily into more formal language.
Endearingly Dorky: He shows a surprisingly endearing side to him in certain segments such as when discussing food or his difficulties with limited tech.
Enemy Mine: V and Takemura go after Yorinobu to reveal him as his father's murderer.
Even Evil Has Standards: When V meets him for the second time at the Japantown bazaar, he's leaning over the railing of a bridge, at which point V can (with a sufficient Cool stat) jokingly tell Goro that he doesn't have to jump, which Goro promptly tells them isn't funny.
The Farmer and the Viper: Potentially for him in any ending except for "Devil". The mercenary whose life he saves and potentially forms a bond with ends up can end up being the one who foils Saburo's schemes and does catastrophic damage to the Arasaka Corporation, leaving him a broken and suicidal soldier.
Fire-Forged Friends: While he and V start off rather strained going through their missions shows the two becoming closer and understanding one another, though the degree of which depends on certain dialogue options. Regardless during the apartment raid V's first thought after being separated is to tell Johnny that they can't leave Takemura behind and (optionally) leaves him behind only at Johnny's continued prodding.
First-Name Basis: V starts calling him by his first name after a few meetings as a sign that they're becoming closer.
Fish out of Water: Having spent most of his life in the byzantine world of corporate espionage and wetwork at Arasaka, he's not used to the comparative simplicity of Night City's underworld and V's methods. This is Played for Laughs in his first text to the player, where Takemura's attempt to communicate the time and location of their next meeting through a series of elaborate code phrases will illicit confusion or amusement from V to his frustration.
Foil:
- To Adam Smasher. They both serve as bodyguard to the members of Arasaka family, but while Takemura is honorable and compassionate when he needs to be, Smasher is only to loyal to whoever pays him the most and is incredibly cruel. There's an extra layer of irony in that Smasher, who is by far the worse person, is serving a significantly less evil employer.
- To Panam Palmer. Both are formerly members of their respective groups held in high esteem, separated from them for their own reasons, but despite this, are still intensly loyal to their respective groups, and intend to help them even if working from the outside, and especially by defying the current person in charge, to return their groups to the "old ways" they used to be. They also both hold personal honor in high regard, and react poorly when said honor is challenged or taken for granted. However, whereas Takemura was exiled from Arasaka because Yorinobu is trying to cover up his murder of Saburo, Panam left the Aldecaldos voluntarily because she could not stand working with Saul. Panam is also very progressive-minded, her beef with Saul being that he is stuck in his ways and refuses to take risks with new ideas, while Takemura is a staunch conservative, who sees the divergent ambitions of Yorinobu and his faction as a betrayal of Arasaka's ways.
- To a Corpo V. Former agents of Arasaka, who were shafted and removed from their position due to the actions of higher-ups beyond their control. While V has learned to enjoy their newfound freedom from a stifling corp, Takemura stays loyal to House Arasaka. At the end of The Tower ending, their positions are the same; just as V has been Brought Down to Normal, Takemura has been permanently ostracized by Arasaka, being framed for Hanako's murder. By the end, he admits that V was, while insufferable, an important part of his own growth away from the company.
Identical Stranger: Has one in in-universe comedian, Hideshi Hino, much to V's amusement. A fan of Hano's even mistakes Takemura for the comedian, much to his chagrin and embarrassment. V can meet the actual Hino in Dogtown, and the only notable difference between them is that Hino has shorter hair.
I've Come Too Far: He invokes this when discussing how sometimes he wishes he could leave it all behind and become a Nomad, deliberately quoting the English saying, "You cannot teach an old dog new tricks," meaning that he sees himself too deeply devoted to Arasaka to succumb to his doubts and walk away.
Honor Before Reason: Goro lives by honor and considers it a deathly serious thing... problem is, it makes him deeply inflexible in a place like Night City.
Hopeless with Tech: Implied. Goro has a very... "odd" grasp of his phone's functions. He mistakenly texts V because he was trying to search for good places to eat in Night City. He justifies it by saying he's using a burner phone and the interface is more difficult to use. Later on, if you save his life in Search and Destroy he'll thank V by texting them a very awkward selfie of himself.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: With some Riches to Rags thrown in. He goes from being the bodyguard to one of the most powerful men on earth to a fugitive who can't use his implants and barely any money to his name. He considers it a fair price to pay for the chance to bring Yorinobu to justice. This continues into "The Tower" ending where Takemura's brief return to the company with Hanako turns sour when Hanako is killed in her failed coup and is blamed for her death by Arasaka's execs, forcing him back into hiding.
Moral Myopia: An extreme case. His code of honour and affection for the family he's sworn to protect would be a lot more admirable if they and the corporation they run weren't amongst the biggest blights on the planet, and if he were capable of acknowledging that most of the population of Night City (and the world at large) has excellent reasons for hating Arasaka. Instead, he's a walking demonstration of the yawning void between honour and morality.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Averted and played straight. He discerns that Yorinobu has killed Saburo and, instead of blindly following him as his new master, attempts to expose his crimes to the board of directors. Takemura sacrifices everything for the sake of avenging his true master, and then devotes himself to serving Saburo's engram once it's uploaded into Yorinobu's body, even though Saburo's "Secure Your Soul" program paints a very bleak future for the world.
Noble Demon: He's a Corporate Samurai that willingly serves a corrupt Megacorp. Nevertheless he has a high degree of honor and loyalty and values those traits over money and comforts unlike just about everyone else in his position. He puts his life at risk multiple times to avenge Saburo's death even though playing dumb would have been much easier.
Noble Top Enforcer: Saburo is a Japanese imperialist turned megalomaniacal businessman who believes in controlling the world through fear. In contrast, Takemura, his unwaveringly loyal bodyguard, comes across as a good-natured, honorable man who takes no pleasure in causing pain, but will do anything his master asks of him because he feels indebted to Saburo for lifting him out of poverty.
Odd Friendship: With V depending on dialogue options. Some dialogue paths allow V to show concern and a sense of camaraderie with him, which he eventually starts to reciprocate. V can even save him from dying despite the risk to themself if the player chooses despite Silverhand's protests. If he's still alive in "The Devil" ending he'll also plead to V to take Arasaka's offer to be uploaded to Secure Your Soul with the promise that some day he'll be able to take V out for "real food".
Old Soldier: Not accounting for life-extending procedures of which he most likely has access to, Takemura looks quite a bit older than most characters.
Precision F-Strike: He will call V an asshole if V introduces him to Wakako as "Hideshi Hino, the comedian". If he survives to the end and V takes the Star or Glory endings he signs off his parting message with "rot in hell kuso-ama ("bitch")".
Real Men Wear Pink: If you look closely, you can see that his fingernails are painted pink and he wears eyeliner. He's also a talented gourmet cook.
Recruited from the Gutter: He was born in one of the worst slums in Japan, and was one of the few children lucky enough to be plucked off the the street and recruited to become Corpo soldiers by Arasaka, which has a lot to do with his loyalty. Unfortunately, it's also blinded him to Arasaka's role in creating such an unfair system in the first place.
Redemption Rejection: If V chooses "The Devil" ending and takes the opportunity to urge Takemura to abandon Arasaka before they go to face Yorinobu, because the company is both evil and will never appreciate him, V's words seem to affect him, before Takemura sadly admits that he can't do it.
Silver Fox: Is an older man, sure, but his physical appearance gets a ton of compliments from the fanbase.
- Both V and Wakako ambiguously hit on him-the latter after immediately meeting him, the former by subtly asking him to meet for dinner.
Tarot Motifs:
- "The Chariot". You can find the corresponding graffiti outside of Tom's Diner, where you first meet him in act II. It represents control, willpower, success, action, determination, goals, travel or self-discipline; reversed, it can mean forcefulness, opposition, lack of direction, blockage, powerlessness or aggression. Takemura is incredibly determined to prove Yorinobu's crime of patricide, and he's willing to work with V, a petty thief, to achieve it.
- "The Devil". Getting this achievement requires going for "The Devil" ending with the specific condition of saving Takemura during "Search and Destroy". It symbolises addiction, restriction, sexuality, materialism, playfulness, secrecy, obsession, bondage and abuse; reversed meanings are realising limiting beliefs, exploring dark thoughts, detachment, freedom, restoring control, reclaiming power and independence. Takemura has proven that Yorinobu has killed Saburo, and is welcomed back into the Arasaka corporation. He's also the one who hands the Engram contract to V, if he was saved before, tying him into the "deal with the Devil" motif this ending has.
Running Gag: The first thing Takemura says to V is "You smell like shit" and for the rest of the game he and V keep bringing up each other's appearance (or smell) whenever they meet.
Undying Loyalty: To Saburo Arasaka. He willingly chooses to abandon his high ranking position in order to bring Yorinobu to justice for his murder. In The Devil ending, he'll remain loyal even after finding out Saburo kept a digital copy of his consciousness hidden from him, will aid Hanako in resurrecting him, and will continue serving the company even if V pleads with them to abandon Arasaka because they'll never appreciate him. "The Tower" ending is what finally shatters his faith in Arasaka after Hanako's failed coup results in her death and Takemura being blamed for it.
We Used to Be Friends: If V saves his life, but chooses any ending that is not "The Devil" ending, Takemura will provide a harsh version of this as he tells them to burn in hell. This continues in "The Tower", though while Takemura is bitter that V wasn't there to help him in taking down Yorinobu, he at least thanks them for helping him realize how little he actually mattered to the corporation.
What the Hell, Hero?: If you save Takemura during the Arasaka raid to recover Hanako but then choose any of the ending paths that lead to you destroying Arasaka, during the ending credits you receive a message from him telling you to burn in hell for what you've done.

Adam Smasher

"Told ya, Johnny boy. Told you I'd end you someday."

Voiced by: Alec Newman (English)^note

"You look like a cut of fuckable meat. Are you?"

An Arasaka full-borg, working as their chief of security and as Yorinobu's personal bodyguard. Smasher plays a role in both the Heist that kicks off the game, as well as in Johnny's backstory in 2023.

An Arm and a Leg: He loses his left arm at fifty-percent of his health.
And Your Little Dog, Too!: If Rogue is absent from his fight with V and/or Johnny, Smasher promises to track her down and kill her too once he finishes with them.
Where's Rogue? Wanted no part of the raid, the old cunt?! Once I finish with you, I'll hunt her down!
Ax-Crazy: As per the source material, one of his conditions for given missions is allowing extreme collateral damage where he kills as many people as he can.
Balance Buff: For much of the game's lifecycle, Smasher in-game was widely considered to be underwhelming considering his reputation and current body (a heavily modified IEC Dragoon, infamous for performing a raid on an Arasaka facility so destructive its best generals said it did the work of an entire battalion); a incredibly slow Mighty Glacier who was as vulnerable to hacking as he was in the original tabletop. This reputation only grew worse as Cyberpunk: Edgerunners showed that he was instead a terrifyingly effective Lightning Bruiser (even having a Sandevistan, which he did not actually use in 2077) who could No-Sell quickhacks. Patch 2.1 rectifies all of this; he now has more moves, hits significantly harder, and not only acquired the Sandevistan (complete with visual effects ripped straight out of the anime) which significantly speeds him up, but also high-end ICE that will trace and counterhack a foolish netrunner.
Benevolent Boss: Downplayed, but he's evidently not above rewarding henchman who do a decent enough job as shown by him giving the Malorian Arms 3516 to his goon Jeremiah Grayson.
Black Eyes of Crazy: Not anymore by the 2070's, but in his youth, he had artificial eyeballs with black sclerae and red irises.
Body Horror: Smasher can be best described as an "evil RoboCop", with a black metal body and half of a pale human face stretched over a robotic head. And then there's his Cyberpunk origin story. It should be noted, that in Silverhand's flashback Smasher looks drastically different - basically a very tall and chunky guy with a mostly intact and rather handsome face, unlike the armored skeleton with the remnant of a rather ugly face he is in 2077. By the end of his fight, his brain can be seen from his skull.
Boxed Crook: Smasher is one of Arasaka’s deadliest assets, though it’s clear that the MegaCorp keeps him on a relatively tight, if gilded, leash. The only times he’s not is when he’s on the job.
Boring, but Practical: His 2023 body can slug off .577 rounds from Johnny’s hand cannon not because he is extensively cybernetically modified, but because his (admittedly likely still enhanced) body is wearing a massive bulletproof vest. Meanwhile, though his 2077 body is much more advanced, and filled to the brim with weapons and cyberware, he's not fond of flashy moves when just unloading munitions or merely pummeling his enemies gets the job done.
The Brute: He is one of the biggest threats of Arasaka serving as the Final Boss along all but one of the endings, but he's not nearly invested in the operations of Arasaka (besides killing for a paycheck) to qualify as a proper Dragon (a role that arguably goes towards Hanako Arasaka, who helps her father Saburo take over Yorinobu's body, and sell the process of immortality via the "Secure Your Soul" program to the world's corporate elite.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Discussed by V and Rogue during the quest "Chippin' In". During the mission they can stumble upon the corpse of a woman Smasher's executed and then find audio logs of him preparing to murder a female hostage. Rogue will wonder if the body they found and the woman mentioned in the logs are one in the same, but V will say there's no way to know for sure when the logs were made. Cue Rogue saying either way, it's just another "day in the life of Adam Smasher."
Card-Carrying Villain: He's made this his whole brand as a mercenary, literally forging himself into the ultimate Psycho for Hire in order to demonstrate his warped sense of superiority over the 'meat'. His belief that Virtue Is Weakness is so sincere and so strong that he'll whip himself up into a berserker frenzy mud-battle over his opponents showing compassion and empathy. It says far too much about the Dark Future that he's never found himself short on customers for his particular brand of commodified evil.
Clipped-Wing Angel: Downplayed, but if V accepts the aid of Rogue in the "Sun" ending, or the Aldecados in the "Star" ending, Rogue and Saul (just before dying at his hands) will cut off a fifth of Smasher's health by, respectively, jamming a live grenade in his chassis, or blasting a hole in his gut with a BFG. Also, when you reduce him to about 10% of his health, he's reduced to slowly hobbling around unsteadily while firing at you with his single remaining Arm Cannon.
Contractual Boss Immunity: Subverted; Aside from the fact that he's susceptible to quickhacks like anyone else (though Patch 2.1 makes it so that his onboard ICE will trace and perform a counterhack on you) it's possible to sneak up on him and perform a stealth takedown (though it takes three to actually put him down).
Corporate Samurai: The more practical take on this in that he's the guy that Arasaka sends to do their dirtiest work.
Corrupted Character Copy: To the titular RoboCop. Both are full-conversion cyborgs who are also enforcers in a cyberpunk Crapsack World. They even have a human face superimposed over a robotic head, but this is where their similarities end, as everything else is virtually the opposite. RoboCop is by-and-large very much a By-the-Book Cop with a very strong moral code (both before and after being turned into a cyborg) and whose Heroic Willpower from when he was Alex J. Murphy was what allowed him to keep on going after being turned into a cyborg as opposed to going off the deep end. Meanwhile, Adam is an unrepentant sadist who terrorizes people for his amusement and more-or-less avoids experiencing the debilitating effects of cyberpyschosis because he was so violent and bloodthirsty before chroming up that cybernetic implants could not drive him any further insane than he already is. Also while RoboCop got programmed into following orders by his employers, Adam willingly joins his company's to cause as much carnage as he can.
Coup de Grâce: Upon his defeat, he's not quite dead yet; his chassis is a wreck, he's on his knees unable to budge from the damage, but is still able to spout off words of spite. In this moment, you have the option to finish him off as you see fit... or not, as the following trope details.
Cruel Mercy: It's possible for V to spare Adam after defeating him, but the game makes it abundantly clear doing so is purely to inflict this upon him (especially if Johnny tells V to do so because he's "just a pile of scrap") - considering the ending has Smasher critically damaged while either on the losing side of an Enemy Civil War between the Arasaka siblings, or in a company that's about to experience catastrophic financial freefall with their "Secure Your Soul" program being wiped by Alt Cunningham, it's clear that V not killing Smasher then-and-there will be a momentary stay of execution.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul:
- Averted. Smasher was an emotionless, sadistic psychopath long before he ever started chroming. He also doesn't undergo cyberpsychosis despite being 96% cybernetics by 2077. It ends up being Justified as evidence gathered in Regina Jones' Cyberpsycho missions reveals that the condition is a Conspiracy Theory deliberately pushed by the media; the actual cause is related to a multitude of factors. Most of them are only tangentially related to cybernetics, and the ones that are related are nearly all related to flaws in implants or implanting procedures. Being employed by the Arasaka corp., Smasher's cybernetic enhancements are all top-of-the-line, bleeding-edge tech implanted by some of the most skilled surgeons and medtechs in the world, meaning there's no cause for psychosis in Adam besides his own naturally brutal personality.
- Mike Pondsmith would later state however that Smasher is actually a high-functioning Cyberpsycho who has the benefit of being in a job that allows him to kill as much as he wants.
The Dragon: While he's The Brute in terms of overall Arasaka hierarchy, he serves as The Dragon to Yorinobu, who promotes him to Head of Security. Throughout the game, Smasher serves as Yorinobu's most visible and dangerous enforcer, and sides with him in Arasaka's brief civil war where Saburo Arasaka's virtual ghost puts Hanako in control of the company.
The Dreaded: Jackie absolutely craps himself when he sees Smasher enter the room during the heist. It says something when even Johnny Silverhand, who possesses a Hand Cannon and 400 health when playing as him, chooses to run away and escape rather than try to fight him. In general, when Smasher appears on the scene, it is guaranteed people will die.
Establishing Character Moment: Smasher is first witnessed in game through a braindance sequence from Evelyn Parker's perspective. Scanning his body shows he is a full conversion cyborg at 96% cybernetics and is rated extremely dangerous, facts that are clearly obvious even without performing a scan. He then contemptuously snarls "You look like a cut of fuckable meat" at Evelyn, showcasing his cruelty. Even V notes how frightened Evelyn feels in the moment.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Killing Oda will earn you his praise while sparing him results in him going on an unhinged rant about how compassion disgusts him.
- If he kills Saul or Rogue, the idea that someone would be willing to die for a cause they believe in and to protect those they love perplexes him.
Evil Counterpart:
- Could be considered as one to V. They're both Hired Guns who only care about money rather than their employer's ideology. They even come into conflict during the ending solely because V needs what's inside Mikoshi/needs to stop Yorinobu for Hanako while Adam is being paid to defend Arasaka assets. Their main difference is their personalities. Adam is a full-blown Misanthrope Supreme Psycho for Hire who sees himself above everyone else. Meanwhile V is (generally) a Jerk with a Heart of Gold with a cadre of True Companions and their missions tend to be on the grayer side with little in the way of civilian casualties.
- Adam is something of an evil opposite to Johnny as well. They're both violent, selfish jerks, who cause grossly disproportionate collateral damage while accomplishing their objectives, and represent the worst excesses of the toxic mentality of Night City–the legendary Rockerboy and the Corpo boogeyman. Johnny, however, is ultimately fighting for ideals, and would rather die than sell out to a corp, while Adam's motives are purely selfish, and he's literally a corporate asset. Additionally, through his interactions with V, Johnny can undergo some much needed Character Development and gain a little self-awareness of the toxic self-mythologizing he was under. Meanwhile, Adam Smasher is proud of his street cred, collects Silverhand memorabilia as trophies of past glory, and even beaten and left for dead, he'll still swear retribution on V as if it's remotely possible for him to do so; Adam Smasher was very much stuck in the past and bought into his own hype, while Johnny eventually sees through his own delusions and tries to move on. Assuming V only installs cyberware mandated by the plot, by 2077 Adam and Johnny contrast physically as well; The former is a human brain in a robotic frame, while Johnny is a chip-based AI in a mostly organic body.
Evil Is Hammy: Being The Brute and Psycho for Hire from Arasaka, Smasher is just as loud as he is a menace to anyone willing to fight him.
Feel No Pain: During his fight with V when his health gets low enough, he reacts in shock that he actually feels pain, stating that it's been a long time since he experienced it.
Final Boss: Unsurprisingly, he's your final opponent in every ending path except the suicide ending which is clearly a Downer Ending as well as the Phantom Liberty exclusive ending, in which V doesn't assault Arasaka Tower.
Finishing Stomp: Does this to Saul in the "Star" ending, after the latter blasts a piece of his chest off with a BFG.
Foil: Smasher serves as one to Goro Takemura. They're both bodyguards to patriarchs of the Arasaka family, but that's where the similarities end. Takemura is a honorable man who gets no pleasure out of cruelty despite serving an evil master, while Smasher is a complete psychopath who revels in hurting others despite serving a secretly Well-Intentioned Extremist master.
For the Evulz: Adam only cares about raping, torturing and killing as many people as he wants. One of his demands when taking a job is to be allowed to pointlessly kill random civilians with nothing to do with his target.
The Friend Nobody Likes: The Solo profession values style and finesse when it comes to executing contracts. This runs directly contrary to his habit of causing as much collateral damage and as many casualties as he can, Consequently, he is essentially persona non grata amongst Solo's. While his skill and status as a living legend is acknowledged, everyone is so terrified of him that no-one with work with him and no-one but Arasaka will hire him, and in Arasaka's case they only employ him for situations where collateral damage is acceptable since it means no one is left alive to pin the blame.
From Camouflage to Criminal: Of the worst kind. Once a Street Kid himself, Adam became a soldier under the old American government. After being dishonorably discharged for bad conduct, it didn't take long for him to slide into the life of mayhem and mass murder he embodies present day.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from being a lowly New York City ganger and dishonorably discharged soldier to Arasaka's top enforcer and most dangerous weapon.
Full-Conversion Cyborg: He used to be a human, but cared so little for his organic side that in the current day, he's almost entirely robotic (96%, to be specific), his flesh now consisting of nothing more than small amount of skin stretched over a robotic face and his brain.
Functional Addict: Adam is for all intents and purposes a functional cyberpsycho, being able to do his job and generally go about daily living despite all the chrome and substances in (what's left of) his body. Then again, he was already a sociopathic menace before all the upgrades and cyberpsychosis, while his job allows him to indulge in those excesses.
Gameplay and Story Integration: During the Relic heist if the player has the threat detector eye mod Smasher will be lit up red unlike everyone else in the room, indicating he’s aware of V and Jackie’s presence but simply chooses not to bring it up for his own amusement.
Goomba Stomp: Can give one to V during his boss fight, jumping high into the air in an attempt to crush them. This does serious damage if you're trapped underneath or near him.
Hate Sink: Cruel, misogynistic, and bloodthirsty, Smasher has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Hero Killer: He's the borg who supposedly killed Johnny Silverhand, and he'll kill one of your team members (Rogue or Saul) if you conduct the final assault on Mikoshi with your allies rather than with Hanako Arasaka's aid/alone. Edgerunners also has him as the one who killed David Martinez and Rebecca.
Hoist by His Own Petard: While Arasaka's engineers have tried their level best to shield him with top-tier ICE (represented in-game by unusually high RAM costs for hacking him, as well as Patch 2.1 giving his ICE the ability to perform a trace and counterhack on you), this remains a serious Logical Weakness for him as a full-borg. Any sufficiently skilled netrunner can literally order his body to tear itself apart by stacking Cyberware Malfunction quickhacks on him and turning all that lethal chrome into explosive scrap...as long as one can delay his ICE's response for long enough.
How Is That Even Possible?: If you're playing as Johnny in the Final Battle, it's possible to convince Smasher that he's staring at his reincarnated foe, and he'll utter this phrase almost word-for-word.
Hypocrite:
- If Takemura is still alive during The Devil ending, Smasher calls him a traitor for trying to overthrow Yorinobu, even though Smasher helped Yorinobu betray and overthrow his father Saburo.
- If Johnny is the one to defeat him, it ironically proves his metal over meat philosophy. This does nothing to stop him from calling foul and swearing vengance for being bested.
Immune to Bullets: During the first playable flashback he's shown completely ignoring multiple gunshots from Johnny's Hand Cannon, which is pretty impressive considering how strong it's shown to be and how Smasher isn't as borged up as he is in the present day. During his boss fight he also takes a decent amount of bullets to put down.
Insanity Immunity: Apparently the reason why Adam does not suffer from the effects of cyberpsychosis despite his extensive mods: "psychotic" is his default state of mind.
It's Personal with the Dragon: Not with V, who has no personal connection to Smasher, but to Johnny Silverhand, who he nearly killed then handed over to Saburo Arasaka to have his consciousness downloaded into Soulkiller. Johnny even says that with Saburo Arasaka already murdered, Smasher is the only other person he wants dead, and he asks V to kill him as a last request. It gets even more personal if Johnny is the one who takes the reins for the final assault on Arasaka, as Smasher will murder Rogue right in front of him just before their final fight.
I Was Quite a Looker: By 2077, Adam Smasher is a hulking abomination whose once human face has almost entirely disappeared, his nose being the only distinct feature he still retains. Back in 2023 however◊, he still had a recognizable face and was actually rather good-looking, his synthetic jaw designed in a way that made it look like he still had a lower lip and a humanlike chin. He is also able to switch bodies, having a closet full of them, with one of them resembling a blonde Elvis Presley, which he used while he was dating Michiko Arasaka.
Jerkass: Not only is Smasher a vile monster, he’s also sexist and disrespectful to even his own superiors.
The Juggernaut: As expected, he's far stronger than most other enemies in the game. Depending on V's level and the difficulty setting it can take minutes to whittle down his health and he keeps going even after losing one of his arms and being set on fire.
Karma Houdini: Not fought or directly encountered should V pursue a certain route in Phantom Liberty in their quest to cure their condition.
Karma Houdini Warranty: After spending decades terrorizing Night City as Arasaka’s attack dog, surviving the destruction of Arasaka Tower in 2023, capturing Johnny and forcing him to spend years as Arasaka’s prisoner inside the Relic, and brutally killing the protagonists of Edgerunners, Smasher finally gets his comeuppance at V’s hands in the endgame.
Karmic Death: After decades of being a Psycho for Hire with many murders to his name and a Karma Houdini due to his usefulness and connections to Arasaka, he can finally be put down at the end by V. Doubly so if Johnny is in control at that point since he gets killed by his old nemesis.
Kavorka Man: According to Mike Pondsmith, at some point in the past he was dating Michiko Arasaka. He evidently used a more humanoid and attractive body around her and reigned in his more repulsive traits since he was smart enough to not piss off a member of the Arasaka family.
Kick the Dog:
- Aboard the ship that serves as his hideout, V and Rogue can find audio logs where Smasher threatens to murder a woman if the man he's speaking to can't overturn his Board's business deal. The second log has Smasher telling his assistant that he knew the plan was never going to work and is going to kill the girl anyway.
- It's also revealed that Adam Smasher is the reason Gilchrist worked as The Mole for Maelstrom, by kidnapping his daughter. He killed her anyway.
Lack of Empathy: Not just a lack of it, but an active aversion to it. As if turning himself into a walking tank for the express purpose of making himself less human and better at killing people wasn't enough of a warning sign, he is genuinely enraged at you if you spare Oda, simply because, in his own words, 'mercy is disgusting'. He's also a very literal example since in his original tabletop stats his Empathy stat is listed as "Yeah, right...".
Large Ham: Bombastically screams for your blood during his fight.
I WILL RIP YOUR BRAIN FROM YOUR SKULL!
Lightning Bruiser: Smasher's as fast as he is strong. In the act 1 heist, he leaps across a courtyard in a single bound, shoulder tackles your car, then smashes the hood. Later on he Kool-Aid Mans through multiple steel blast doors, which is a fairly accurate warning of what he'll do to you if he connects with one of his headlong charges during his boss fight. The 2.1 update gave him a Sandevistan like he did in Edgerunners, allowing him to be far more agile. It also gave him a ton more health and made it so he hits much harder, so he more than lives up to this trope.
Living Legend: He's listed as one alongside other notable figures and edgerunners like Morgan Blackhand and Weyland Boa Boa. No surprise V killing him, alone or with help, helps cement their own Living Legend status.
Logical Weakness: Because he’s 96% cybernetics, quickhacks like static shock or disable cyberware absolutely cripple him and leave him a sitting duck.
Macross Missile Massacre: By far his most dangerous attack is a barrage of missile fire that can quickly whittle down V’s health to nothing if not dodged.
Made of Iron: He is a cyborg with top-of-the-line tech.
Meaningful Name: Ignoring the Zeerust of it, his name–"Adam" meaning "man," and "Smasher" meaning "destroy"–literally translates into "man destroyer."
Misanthrope Supreme: 96% of Smasher’s body is cybernetic and the remainder is arrogance. To him being made of flesh is a weakness and the average human is worthless, so he refers to all organic bodies as "meat". In general he perceives uncompromising violence as superior to compassion and mercy, and thus himself as superior to humanity. And no, Cybernetics Eat Your Soul is not in play here, as detailed above. He was an unrepentant psychopath even before his conversion, and in fact he began chroming up for the explicit purpose of removing as much of his "flesh" as possible to purposely distance himself from humanity.
More Despicable Minion: To both of his employers. While Saburo valued family and Yorinobu desired to take down Arasaka from the inside, Smasher is a sadistic misanthrope who enjoys causing as much collateral damage as possible.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: As with the tabletop depictions, his name "Smasher", while a Punny Name (see below), is just as fearsome as himself.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Yorinobu genuinely wanted Hanako returned and unharmed. Unfortunately, he tasked a man who almost fetishizes collateral damage to do it. While technically successful, Adam botched the rescue to the point where Hanako believed Yorinobu tried to have her killed. This causes her to fish out her fathers consciousness from Mikoshi, reorganize Arasaka and overthrow him.
Plausible Deniability: He maintains connections with Maelstrom, partly due to being one of the only Night City gangs crazy enough to even entertain him, and as a means of getting things that even he couldn't be seen involved with done. Allowing him to manipulate and blackmail Militech personnel like Anthony Gilchrist with none the wiser.
Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Backstory conflict with Johnny Silverhand aside, Smasher only has brief, sporadic appearances throughout the game, during which he never drives the plot forward in anyway. When he shows up as the Final Boss to fight V, he's completely unaware of V's goals or Silverhand's presence, he's just doing what he's paid to do: protect Arasaka property.
Politically Incorrect Villain: He casually refers to Evelyn as a "Fuckable cut of meat" and angrily calls Rogue a "Cunt". It's however more likely that rather than hating women specifically Smasher's just an asshole to everyone.
Power Born of Madness: Adam Smasher had become a legend through his sociopathic exploits and sheer tenacity. And that's before he became a high-functioning cyberpsycho.
Pragmatic Villainy: As sociopathic as Adam is, he's savvy enough to know when to hold back and avoid ticking off his Arasaka superiors too much. He's also shown to have some measure of restraint if circumstances call for it, such as when he was dating Michiko Arasaka back in the day.
Punny Name: His name is a play on atom smasher,^note but doesn't stop him from having penchant to smash people.
The Quiet One: Zigzagged. He doesn't speak much due to his sparse screen time (only having around 20 lines of dialogue for the entire game), but being The Brute of Arasaka, he enjoys loudly taunting his opponents during his boss fight.
Red Eyes, Take Warning:
- Has a pair of Glowing Mechanical Eyes, although not as inhuman as Maelstrom's rigs.
- As shown in a flashback, Smasher's original synthetic eyeballs already had red irises, as well as black sclerae.
Sadist: Makes conscious effort to terrify people for his own amusement, as the above mentioned treatment of Evelyn shows, but also knowing V and Jackie were hiding in the hotel room but saying nothing because it would be more fun to let them sweat and chase them down later.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: He is probably the most foul mouthed character in the game, making liberal use of F and C bombs alike in the few lines he has.
The Sociopath: A chillingly functional example. He's a bloodthirsty sadist who thinks he's better than everyone else just because he ditched his own humanity while everyone else holds onto ideals such as mercy, to say nothing of how he cares very little about anyone else. At the same time, in spite of his cyberpsychosis, he's still more than capable of getting things done and being relatively controllable for Arasaka.
Terminator Impersonator: He's a nigh-unstoppable death machine who is barely human both literally and figuratively.
There Was a Door: He's like a big, evil, metal Kool-Aid Man, and his favored method of entry is from where you least expect someone to enter, such as off the side of a skyscraper before shoulder-checking your car, or through several blast doors in succession.
This Cannot Be!: If Johnny is in control during the final assault he’s in utter disbelief can only ask in confusion how his old nemesis is alive again in a new body.
Undignified Death: The game makes this a matter of player choice, but strongly nudges you towards giving him one of these. At the end of his boss fight, he ends up as an immobile, burnt-out husk who can be killed with a single attack of any kind, after you've been given exceedingly little reason to spare his life or offer him any sort of dignified exit. Popular player decisions include decapitating him with Johnny's Malorian or Evelyn's Cocktail Stick, blowing him up with Ozob's Nose, splattering him with Rebecca's Guts, or (for maximum humiliation) giving him a formal introduction to Sir John Phallustiff.
Unknown Rival: An odd variation. By all accounts he and Johnny Silverhand did have a longstanding and heated rivalry unlike his more one-sided grudge against Morgan Blackhand in the tabletop. To the point where even fifty years after Johnny's death Adam still kept many of Silverhands possessions, despite not taking trophies from any other kills. However, he’s unaware of Johnny surviving as an engram stuck in V’s head. This means that while Johnny still hates his guts and practically begs and orders V to end him as a Last Request Smasher has no idea about his existence. In the final boss fight he reacts with utter confusion if V tells him that Johnny sends his regards after being beaten.
Smasher: What the fuck are you talking about?
Villain Has a Point: As terrible as he is, he has a point that Rogue and Saul knew exactly what they were getting into by helping V.
Virtue Is Weakness: He mocks V for being weak and 'human' if they choose to spare Oda. He even calls mercy disgusting, as if basic human decency is somehow repellent to him.
Walking Armory: By 2077, Smasher's whole body is a weapon. Several weapons, in fact. He's basically RoboCop's head on War Machine's body.
Wetware CPU: Just about the only part of him that's still human is his brain.
We Will Meet Again: If V or Johnny decides to spare Smasher after their fight instead of finishing him off, Smasher will roar after them that they'll meet again.
The Worf Effect: Inverted. To everyone else in Night City, Adam Smasher is The Dreaded, basically the result of what would happen if you gave a main battle tank legs and the disposition of a psychopath. To a V in the "(Don't) Fear the Reaper" ending, he's the Final Boss. And the fact that V, all the while slowly dying from the Relic Chip being in its terminal phases, coughing up blood, constantly losing health, and having already mowed through Arasaka's finest SpecOps personnel, may just manage to put down Smasher alone? That's a testament to the sheer force of will V is running on and ultimately what catapults the merc solidly into Night City legend practically overnight if they manage to pull it off and come back in one piece.
Zeerust: Rather weirdly, his (somehow fitting) name. When the original TTRPG was written, atom smashers were the new cutting edge in high-energy tech and advanced research, and the Punny Name probably felt cool and futuristic. In 2020, when atom smashers are regular pieces of scientific hardware, and everyone calls them "particle accelerators" instead of "atom smashers", the name makes him sound like a typical bad guy from a particularly poorly dubbed Saturday morning cartoon.

Anders Hellman

"It's programmed to take over its new environment. At all costs. And your little meatbrain is helpless against it."

Voiced by: Alec Newman (English), Waldemar Barwiński (Polish)^note

"Fate is a fickle mistress, isn't she? You spend your whole life fighting something... only to become that very same thing."

Arasaka's leading biochip engineer and the creator of the Relic.

Brutal Honesty: If Takemura's dead in the Devil ending, Hellman doesn't just mince his words when telling V that they're literally required to waive their life over to Arasaka as part of the deal in order to get their free "Secure Your Soul" ticket. He tells them that either way, they're screwed, and there's no way of going around it.
Butt-Monkey: He's often involved in situations that end badly for him, such as being punched out by V or forced to run an Arasaka bodyguard over.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The Devil ending reveals this is why Hellman was not only spared by Arasaka but was even brought back on-board with a superficially cushy position. He admits that this is most likely due to being deemed more useful alive than dead.
Car Fu: During The Devil ending, if V doesn't incapacitate the Arasaka guard preventing them from entering Yorinobu's estate, Hellman will panic and ram him with their car.
Early-Bird Cameo: He can spotted arguing with Yorinobu in the BD recording Evelyn Parker took for the Konpeki heist.
Germanic Efficiency: He hails from Germany and he serves as Arasaka's lead expert on biochips.
Gone Horribly Right: Upon analyzing V, Hellman is at once fascinated and horrified, realizing that the ramifications of the Relic (along with, by extension, Arasaka's "Secure Your Soul" program) have far exceeded his own expectations.
Herr Doktor: Downplayed. He's an aloof German doctor in charge of overseeing the Relic and isn't particularly warm to anyone. That said, he does have some moral standards, even caring enough about V's condition to offer them access to a hospice in Sweden and in the Devil ending, vouch for their inclusion in the "Secure Your Soul" program alongside Hanako.
I Warned You: Hellman personally considered Yorinobu nabbing the Relic to be incredibly reckless and tried warning him against opposing Saburo so brazenly.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. While Hellman isn't particularly likable, he does show a modicum of sympathy for V's plight and personally visits them in the Devil ending if Takemura winds up dead, even if by his own admission Hanako could have sent some nameless messenger instead.
Lesser of Two Evils: In the Devil ending, he evidently believes that while V has no good options, taking the free slot in the "Secure Your Soul" program will at least let them live, potentially forever.
Meaningful Name:
- Well, second name. It's Hellman, and he's the one who will offer V the contract in "The Devil" ending, if the player didn't save Takemura.
- Martin Hellman is an American cryptologist, who is considered one of the fathers of public-key cryptography.
Pet the Dog: Downplayed. He comes off as genuinely sympathetic to V's situation when he offers them the Secure Your Soul contract, fully understanding that they're stuck between becoming corporate property or dying and that they have excellent reasons not to trust Arasaka's offer. He can even explain that he's being screwed over by Arasaka just like V and refers to them as his "companion in distress".
- Also when you first talk to him, he offers help getting to a hospice he knows in Sweden, in spite of the fact that V has, at that point, shot down the transport he was in, beaten him up and kidnapped him.
Properly Paranoid: Hellman's defection to Kang Tao is shown to have been thorough and well-planned enough that, if not for V and Panam's meddling, it would have played out without a hitch.
Resignations Not Accepted: Averted, much to V's surprise. In the "Devil" ending it's revealed that he started working for Arasaka again, and when V express surprise that he wasn't killed for his attempt to defect, Hellman explains that it's because he's much more useful alive and well to Arasaka than if they'd got rid of him.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Saburo's death he attempts to defect to Kang Tao to escape Yorinobu's wrath. V's mission becomes tracking him down and stopping that from happening.
Tarot Motifs: Possibly "Wheel Of Fortune". You can find the graffiti in the Sunset Motel, where V takes him for questioning. It represents good luck, karma, life cycles, destiny, a turning point, changes and soul mates; reversed, it can mean bad luck, resistance to change, breaking cycles, misfortune, losing control, setback and disruption. V's luck is directly tied to Hellman's work on the "Secure Your Soul" project. Hellman's luck in this game is also a sinusoid: he defects from Arasaka to Kang Tao, only to be shot down by V and Panam and taken for questioning, only to be again taken in by the Arasaka.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Hellman is one of the only characters who refers to engrams strictly as data, instead of "souls" or "human consciousnesses".
What Were You Thinking?:
- Upon V mentioning their patch-up by Viktor to Hellman during the interrogation that they went to Vik, he snaps incredulously at them, wondering why they'd go to a ripperdoc and divulge the Relic's existence to said ripperdoc.
- When viewing Evelyn Parker's BD recording of Yorinobu's Konpeki suite, V can catch the tail-end of a call with Hellman as he admonishes Yorinobu for doing something so reckless as stealing the Relic from under everyone's noses.

Sandayu Oda

"Unlike you, I have not yet failed to keep my oath to do my duty."

Voiced by: Noshir Dalal (English)^note

Hanako Arasaka's personal bodyguard, and former apprentice of Takemura.

Blade Below the Shoulder: Primarily wields a pair of red-hot Mantis Blades in combat.
Corporate Samurai: He's a highly proficient fighter who serves as the bodyguard for Arasaka's corporate heiress, even being the disciple of fellow corporate samurai Takemura.
Cyber Ninja: In addition to being a proficient martial artist and specializing in melee combat, he's tricked out with various cybernetic enhancements like Mantis Blades and micro-missile launchers. His boss fight music is even titled "Cyberninja" on the soundtrack.
Hero Antagonist: Relatively speaking. Yeah, he acts like a world-class prick to V and even Takemura on top of working for Arasaka, but at the end of the day he’s just trying to do his job as a bodyguard and protect his boss, and he does give Takemura and V one chance to run rather than just arresting or killing them on the spot. It’s part of why Takemura asks V to spare him.
Honor Before Reason: Just like his former teacher Takemura. Takemura even claims that Oda wouldn’t attack him for this reason. V lampshades it:
V: You and your fuckin’ sick sense of honor...
Irony: He looks down on Takemura as a coward and traitor, and yet the only reason V might spare him is because Takemura begs them to. V even tells him to thank Takemura for his life if they do.
Jerkass: He’s very curt and condescending to both V and Takemura. Justified, given that the latter stands accused of murdering his former charge and the former only got mixed up in this mess by trying to rob his bosses blind. Not even being spared by V at Takemura's urging or allying yourself with Hanako Arasaka will make him any nicer towards them. The closet he gets is wishing them luck when V and Takemura go to confront Yorinobu.
Jerkass Has a Point: After Takemura is framed for Saburo's murder and reaches out to Oda for help, Oda refuses, and says Takemura is lucky Oda doesn't kill him on the spot. When Takemura expresses frustration, Oda asks him what he would do in his place.
Takemura: I do no favors. I would deliver your head to Yorinobu-sama.
Oda: Consider yourself lucky I am not you.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Hanako's revelations at the end of the game cast his earlier attitude in a new light. He already knew that Yorinibu killed Saburo — probably having learned it when Hanako did — so his apparent disinterest in the murder and unsubtly urging Takemura to leave the city might've been him trying to protect his mentor, as he knew that pursuing the issue could get Takemura killed. His hostility toward V might likewise be due to the danger associating with them puts Takemura in.
Lightning Bruiser: He moves crazy fast, hits hard, and takes a LOT of bullets to bring down.
Malevolent Masked Man: He wears a creepy red mask that resembles a Kabuki mask.
Meaningful Name: "Oda" likely comes from the Oda clan and its most well-known member, Oda Nobunaga, who played a big role in unifying Japan in the mid-XVIth century. Just like his historic counterpart, Oda is an accomplished warrior who cares about the unity of the Arasaka family above all.
Pet the Dog: While he's cold and contemptuous during his meeting with V and Takemura, he doesn't try to kill them for the price Yorinobu put on their heads. Instead, he gives them one chance to leave Night City alive and unharmed, promising he won't be so lenient if he sees either of them again. This is in contrast to Takemura, who, in the same conversation, claims if their roles were reversed, he wouldn't do Oda any favors.
Tarot Motifs: "The Hierophant". You can find the graffiti right after his first meeting with V and Takemura. It represents convention, structure, social hierarchies, and spiritual wisdom; reversed, it means restraints, questioning the social order, freedom, and loss of control. Oda isn't interested in questioning if Yorinobu killed Saburo, unlike Takemura. Yorinobu is his new boss, and so he will fulfill his will.
Wake-Up Call Boss: Oda is the game's first mandatory boss fight (all other bosses besides the Final Boss are part of sidequests, not counting the one in Johnny's flashback who's just an Elite Mook with a unique name and maybe slightly more health), and is quite tough, especially if you haven't been leveling up to become proficient in an effective style of combat.

Jenkins

Arthur Jenkins

"Don't ask stupid questions. This isn't a request, V."

"Fucking Frankfurt... that Abernathy bitch'll probably dump it on our laps."

The Director of Counter-Intelligence in Arasaka's American headquarters, as well as V's superior in the Corpo prologue who sends them to assassinate his rival.

Affably Evil: A little downplayed; he's initially a bit rough on Corpo V when they run late to his meeting, but it can be played off as his superior having his balls in a vice following a data leak at Arasaka. When he and V meet face to face, he's casual and polite...as he's ordering another agent to fry the brains of half the European Space Council. He then orders V to kill said superior who has his balls in a vice, with not-so-pleasant implications that V can't refuse this job.
Asshole Victim: Considering he is responsible for killing a few members of the European Space Council and was attempting to assassinate his superior, it's difficult to feel sorry for his implied Karmic Death.
Board to Death: Arranges one for the European Space Council, waiting until most of the members have plugged into their version of the internet before ordering one of his agents to fry them all with a virus (which he then spins as "a technical malfunction" on Biotechnica, the corporation that made said internet connectors).
In Spite of a Nail: Even if V isn't a Corpo, it seems Jenkins's ESA Council hit job still happens. Maximum Mike, the radio personality who runs Morro Rock Radio and makes accurate conspiracy theory postulations, comments on the event, and correctly deduces what happens: the hit order didn't come from the top, and it was a hasty, sloppy job. Mike will make this commentary even on lifepaths other than Corpo.
Kick the Dog: The very first thing you see Jenkins doing is ordering the assassination of the European Space Council in order to delay them from revoking Arasaka's license in the Sea of Clouds for a week (which does double-duty as an Establishing Character Moment for Arasaka itself and the kind of people who work for them in the Corpo lifepath).
Killed Offscreen: Sometime between Abernathy foiling his assassination attempt and Act 2 he is killed off, presumably for aforementioned assassination attempt. His grave niche can be found at the cemetery with an inscription stating "Committed to the corporation, loyal until the very end."
Klingon Promotion: He sends V to kill a rival supervisor, Susan Abernathy, in the Corpo prologue.
Murder Is the Best Solution: Jenkins is an Ax-Crazy goon. His idea to stall for time after a Noodle Incident in Frankfurt? Murdering the entire European Space Council with a cybernetic virus to delay them revoking Arasaka's license in the Sea of Clouds for just one week. And then when his boss calls him out for the massacre, decides the next logical step is arrange her own assassination. Also Subverted, in that Abernathy disapproved of his massacre of the ESC (not on moral grounds, but because the coverup was an unnecessary expense), and him trying to assassinate Abernathy gets Corpo V immediately found out and fired by Arasaka forces.
Too Dumb to Live: It's no coincidence that being tethered to this guy means that Corpo V is literally minutes from dishonourable discharge when the game begins. His unacceptably messy, artless Murder Is the Best Solution approach to running Arasaka counterintel is both a PR nightmare for the company and an intolerable disruption to its internal functioning, and there's nothing you can do to prevent him from writing his own death warrant in giant neon letters.

Abernathy

Susan Abernathy

"I told you to solve the problem, not massacre the European Space Council. Do you understand what the cover-up will cost?"

Arasaka's Director of Special Operations in America, and The Rival of Jenkins in the Corpo prologue.

Adaptational Sexuality: A strange and likely unintentional example: In the Polish version, when Jenkins is talking about the dirt he has on her, he mentions her "kochanka", which means specifically a female lover, making Abernathy a lesbian/bisexual woman. In the English dub, she's simply referred to as a "lover", which is vague and doesn't specify the person in question's gender. Either version confirms the name of the lover: Claudette Dalitso.
The Chessmaster: Very quickly gets wind of Jenkins plotting against her and acts accordingly.
Driven to Suicide: If Corpo V tries to invoke her name in The Devil ending in a Bavarian Fire Drill attempt, the Arasaka guard tells them that she committed suicide two days before.
The Ghost: She is only mentioned by other characters, never appearing in person. However, her face briefly flashes on V's screen during the Corpo prologue, when they're being briefed by Jenkins.
Pragmatic Villainy:
- Disapproves of Jenkins' way of dealing with the European Space Council, but only because the coverup was an unnecessary expense.
- Decides that V is Not Worth Killing when she has them fired for being involved in Jenkins' assassination plot. While her underlings do consider offing V for some extra brownie points, Jackie promptly intimidates them into leaving, and she never bothers V or Jackie again.
Ungrateful Bastard: To Carter,^note who let her know about Jenkins' plot against her; For his part in essentially thwarting the plot and saving her life, she orders the "purging" all of Jenkins' department, including Carter, though Carter denies her the satisfaction by flinging himself from a bridge instead.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: For Arasaka in Corpo V lifepath in all endings but The Devil. By having V take the fall for Jenkins' malfeasance only to let them live, she launched a chain of events that shook the corporation to its core. It's not even because V ever plotted to get back at Abernathy, as their heist of the Arasaka Relic was done for unrelated reasons.

Frank

Frank Nostra

"I heard you're in counterintel. Must have a shitshow on your hands right now after Frankfurt."

An Arasaka Special Operations agent and V's coworker in the Corpo lifepath. He is encountered again in Act 2, apparently having been sacked out of Arasaka by Director Abernathy since V's own termination from the company.

False Friend:
- Greets V like an old friend upon bumping into one another in Arasaka HQ during the Corpo prologue. He’s also part of the team Abernathy sends after V, and stands in the back as the more physically imposing agents confront V without saying so much as a word.
- During Act 2, he asks for V's help in exposing Director Abernathy's misdeeds. Turns out it's a ruse to capture V and bring them to Abernathy, in the hopes of being accepted back into Arasaka.
Heel Realization: Instead of killing him, V can also convince Frank that it is futile for him to get back to Arasaka's good graces, prompting him to abandon his plan and start a new life in Night City as a nobody.
I Call Her "Vera": He wields a unique Kenshin tech pistol called "Apparition".
Riches to Rags: When V encounters him again, Frank has been stripped of almost everything he has, save for his gun and the clothes on his back.

Grayson

Jeremiah Grayson

Voiced by: Stephen Oyoung (English)

An Arasaka guard and henchman to Adam Smasher.

Bullying a Dragon: Even after being wounded and held at gunpoint by V and Living Legend Rogue, he won't stop hurling insults at the pair of them.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Smasher gave Grayson Johnny Silverhand's gun as a reward for a job well done. After taking it back from Grayson, you can then execute him with it.
Jerkass: A thoroughly unpleasant and contemptible piece of garbage who happily serves one of the most Ax-Crazy killers in the setting.
Personal Mook: What he amounts to for Smasher, staying behind to clean up his boss's messes after Smasher becomes head of security at Arasaka.
Pragmatic Villainy: As much of a slimeball he is, he will provide V a car key and a location about Johnny's car if they spare him. It's possible to get Johnny's car by looting the keys from him if you chose to kill him, but locating the car becomes much harder.
Villains Want Mercy: He keeps spewing vitriol at Rogue right up until the point where he realizes neither she nor V are particularly inclined to spare him. At which point he starts bargaining for his life.

Militech

In General

Militech International Armaments

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/militechcorporation2077.png

An American arms manufacturer that produces most of the weapons seen in the setting. They are Arasaka's main competitor in the security industry and the two are known to frequently fight with each other. It was founded in 1996 by an Italian gunsmith Antonio Luccessi, and gained prominence few years later, when retired USMC General Donald Lundee became its CEO.

Arch-Enemy: To Arasaka. According to the 2077 Handbook, 50 years before the events of the game, Arasaka and Militech fought the "Fourth Corporate War" a devastating conflict that began when two minor corporations hired them for security reasons, and the two remain fierce enemies long after its end.
- At the beginning of the game, Jackie suggests V brush up on their combat skills using a stolen Militech training program. The very first thing V does is shoot at targets bearing the Arasaka logo, and the example enemies all take the form of red holographic Arasaka troops.
Armies Are Evil: Serving as a Militech soldier was what first radicalised Johnny Silverhand, and they haven't improved since. They're the entire US military-industrial complex turned into a rapacious private monopoly, with all the horrors that implies. They take kids off the streets, turn them into drug-addled cyberpsychos with terrifyingly advanced weaponry, and then send them to raid neighbouring countries for resources, racking up an impressive number of war-crimes along the way. Once a war is over, they turn the traumatised human refuse who used to be their rank-and-file soldiers back onto the streets after confiscating their most advanced weaponry and cyberware (including the stuff that was holding their fragile psyches together), and then sell their leftover tech to the Third World to keep the Forever Wars there burning.
Arms Dealer: As the name suggests, they're an international arms manufacturer. The weapons preview demonstrates a few of their products, and a quest leading up to the relic heist involves retrieving a combat drone that was stolen from one of their convoys. They also have the single biggest lineup of guns available to the player in the game: the Lexington machine pistol, the Saratoga submachine gun, the Ajax assault rifle, the Crusher shotgun, the Omaha tech pistol, and the Achilles tech precision rifle. They also offer a number of sights: the Kanone Mini short sight, the Kanone Max sniper scope, and the Grandstand long sight.
Ascended Extra: Downplayed. While by no means a bit player prior to update 2.0, Militech was more often than not overshadowed by Arasaka in terms of plot significance and presence in-game. Post 2.0 and Phantom Liberty however, Militech, and by extension the NUSA at large, gets considerably more focus.
Big Bad Ensemble: Less so for the specific story of the game, and more for the Dark Future of 2077 as a whole. There are many powerful and unpleasant organisations in the world, but Arasaka and Militech stand out as the twin pinnacles of evil.
Dangerous Deserter: One of the NUSA's less advertised exports. As mentioned in Armies Are Evil above, becoming a Militech soldier will drastically increase your ability to kill people and drastically reduce your mental stability, and the only ways to finish your career with them and come out ahead are to get promoted or to desert. Not all Militech deserters are evil or antagonistic (in fact, the nature of Militech means one will often be a Defector from Decadence), but all of them are very dangerous.
Day of the Jackboot: If "The Tower ending in Phantom Liberty'' is any indication, Militech's presence in Night City becomes more pronounced in the wake of Arasaka's departure, even as the metropolis slides into a death spiral. Strongly hinting to the NUSA's eventual plans of stepping in once conditions become dire enough.
Drunk with Power: Militech originated from a partnership between talented firearms designer Antonio Luccessi and NUSA General Donald Lundee, with the intent to supply the military with superior quality firearms. However, as Militech grew bigger, their noble goals and honest practices disappeared.
Eagleland: Type 2, all the way. They represent an America descended entirely into corporate fascism - One Nation Under Copyright of brutal, xenophobic arms dealers where democracy has been completely eroded by an unholy cocktail of militaristic imperialism and the almighty dollar.
Elaborate Underground Base: Militech set up a rather intricate network of bunkers and laboratories hidden right underneath Pacifica and specifically Dogtown, as revealed in Phantom Liberty.
Empire with a Dark Secret: Phantom Liberty reveals that Militech not only built hidden secret bunkers and labs right underneath the parts of Pacifica that became Dogtown, but had also devised their own version of Soulkiller, Cynosure, which not even Arasaka seems to have been aware of, as part of a broader programme of weaponising the Mechanical Abomination AIs beyond the Blackwall - an act that the rest of the world would not-unreasonably see as verging on treachery against the human race.
Enemy Civil War: Over the past decades, there had been a low-key power struggle between the old guard (executives still following Donald Lundee's lead) and reformists (who came to be led by the more patriotic Rosalind Myers), with the latter ultimately winning out. Even by 2077, however, it's implied that this hasn't fully died down, with some suspecting Myers (now NUSA President) of using the FIA against her enemies within Militech.
Enemy Mine: During the Fourth Corporate War they backed a certain team of rather anti-corporate solos, including one Johnny Silverhand, and used then to perform the raid on Arasaka Tower.
Evil, Inc.: Ruthless arms dealers who decided to cut out the middle-man and found their own conquering empire, turning the NUSA into a corporate fascist state. They've unleashed roughly the same amount of misery on the world as their eternal rivals Arasaka.
Evil Is Not a Toy: Their most secret military research involves mucking around with the Blackwall and the Mechanical Abomination entities lurking beyond it. Most characters who learn about this are horrified precisely because of this trope - it's basically the Cyberpunk equivalent of the most powerful corporation on Earth making a Deal with the Devil, and it's not a question of if it will backfire on them and doom humanity, but when.
Evil Versus Evil: Their ancient rivalry with Arasaka is half a corporate dispute, and half a struggle between American fascism and Japanese imperialism, and while Arasaka are the main villains of the game, Militech's appearances are filled with Kick the Dog moments. This is further underlined in the endings: The Star has you tear through a small army of Militech goons before crippling Arasaka and stealing all their shiniest toys, and The Sun and (Don't Fear) The Reaper endings have you similarly rampage against corporate forces to get to Mikoshi (with the latter route being an outright Suicide Mission). By contrast, The Devil, where The Bad Guy Wins, has a resurrected Saburo Arasaka make peace with and form an alliance with Militech and the NUSA and in the Tower ending, the reverse occurs where Arasaka is forced to pull out of Night City paving the way for Militech and the NUSA to become the dominant power.
Follow the Leader: In-universe. It's revealed in Phantom Liberty that Militech's top-secret "Project Cynosure" is its own reverse-engineered version of Soulkiller. And unlike Arasaka, it devises the means to undo its effects without killing V.
The Friend Nobody Likes: If certain NCPD gigs are anything to go by, Militech has a terse working relationship with the rest of Night City despite its prominence, with the NCPD more than happy to have people like V dispose of its personnel if they're involved in a reported crime.
Law Enforcement, Inc.: Militech patrols can usually be found out in the Badlands surrounding Night City, mostly to serve as a deterrent against Nomad clans due to the NCPD's nigh-nonexistent presence there. They're also hired by certain companies in Night City to act as strikebreakers against uppity workers.
Long Game: Phantom Liberty reveals that Militech, under CEO (and later NUSA President) Rosalind Myers, became progressively intertwined with the federal government as part of long-term scheme to not only reunite America, but restore it to its "rightful place" as the dominant world power, damn the consequences. The Tower ending implies that V's actions may have paved the way for the NUSA and Militech's ultimate victory, even if they're not recognized for having any part.
MegaCorp: Not as prominent as Arasaka, but no less dangerous by virtue of being the main arms dealers in the world. It is apparently in charge of the United States due to the fact the majority of the government's officials are either former employees or under their control, though given that said government had nationalized Militech in the aftermath of the Fourth Corporate War, it's left vague as to who's really in charge.
More Dakka: Militech guns specialise in filling the air with bullets, either in bursts or as a steady stream. They provide most of the primary sources of dakka in the game, including the massive HM Gs and LM Gs, and their well-deserved reputation as the world's leading arms manufacturer means it's generally more powerful and accurate dakka than one might reasonably expect. Even their take on a designated marksman weapon, the Achilles tech rifle, fires narrow shotgun-like spreads of bullets.
Motive Decay: Zig-Zagged. They went from genuine hope to provide the USA with the best armaments possible to dreams of being most powerful entity in the world by means of arms trade rather quickly. Phantom Liberty, however, reveals that since Donald Lundee's death, and especially under Rosalind Myers’ influence, they've pivoted towards trying to reclaim American greatness, however warped that vision may be.
My Country, Right or Wrong: Militech still pays lip service to American patriotism and advancing the NUSA's interests, if partly due to the MegaCorp being so intertwined with the federal government that they're practically interchangeable.
Necessarily Evil: Especially since Myers' time as CEO, as revealed in Phantom Liberty, Militech's modus operandi is tolerated by both the MegaCorp's leadership and the NUSA as a necessary evil in order to disrupt the corporate status-quo.
One Nation Under Copyright: Militech and the NUSA have become intertwined to the point that it's hard to tell where the line is between the government and corporation. This is a consequence of the US Government nationalizing the corporation after the Fourth Corporate War, and Militech proving too big to control - rather than the corporation serving national interests, the nation ended up serving corporate interests.
Private Military Contractor: They act as Arasaka's main competitor in the private security sector, even providing border patrol for The Free State of Northern California. Being so deeply integrated with the NUSA government, though, it's hard to say whether Militech is a PMC or a national military run on corporate principles.
Propaganda Machine: As expected of a MegaCorp, though Militech's efforts aren't as subtle or well-received as those of Arasaka, at least within Night City. Corporate Wars: The Musical, a Militech-produced revisionist retelling of the Fourth Corporate War disguised as a love story, is mentioned as being mocked by critics.
Putting on the Reich: Along with Arasaka, they're the premier trendsetters of the 'neomilitarist' style - bulky, intimidating, sleekly elegant, and heavy on dark, sinister colours. Your standard 'space Nazi' aesthetic, basically.
Theme Naming: Militech weapons have similar naming conventions and designations to those of the United States military, befitting its origins.
War for Fun and Profit: Under General Lundee's tenure as CEO, Militech rapidly gained profits not only from weapons manufacturing and arms dealing, but also from conflict itself, offering both military hardware and manpower to whoever can afford it. Even after it was nationalized, and especially after Myers' reforms, this still remains a constant to some degree.

Meredith Stout

"You pay with that chip, and that's all you gotta worry about. Try to fuck me in any way, and I'll be seeing you real soon."

Voiced by: Erica Lindbeck (English), Anna Szymańczyk (Polish)^note

Militech's Senior Operations Manager in Night City, Meredith is a highly ambitious and driven corporate. In 2077, a company leak led to a Militech convoy being hijacked by the Maelstrom gang and, with the corporation suspecting inside knowledge, tasked Meredith with finding the leak. Shortly after she found evidence leading to her prime suspect, Anthony Gilchrist, who was summarily caught and interrogated by her team. However, Meredith did not receive the information she needed to track down the hijackers (or all the Militech materiel that they stole). With her job and life on the line, she began to desperately search Watson for any possible leads.

Birds of a Feather: She gets along far better with a Corpo V than a Nomad or Street Kid, provided you use the Corpo dialogue options when dealing with her.
Character Death: Her fate if you remove the virus from the money chip she gives you, since she'll take the fall for the missing convoy. You can later find her corpse underwater, near the canal locks in Northside, where it is revealed she was beaten up, shaved bald (presumably to retrieve her implants, since they are owned by Militech), and given the Cement Shoes treatment.
Covert Pervert: Her cold, confrontational attitude makes it quite surprising that V even can romance her. If you refrain from insulting or backstabbing her during "The Pickup", and then flirt with her when she texts you afterwards, she'll in no uncertain terms proposition a one night stand with V. Given her ownership of a room at the No-Tell Motel and the kinky outfit she wears should V accept, it would seem this is absolutely not Meredith's first time indulging in this kind of activity.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Downplayed, but there. The first time you meet her she is pissed off and has her bodyguards manhandle you. Once you start talking with her and the truth comes out that V had nothing to do with Gilchrist or the convoy hijacking, however, she becomes more civil and understanding. If you end up helping her with Maelstrom she will happily keep her end of the bargain, tossing you the Flathead and possibly even throwing in some casual sex just for fun.
Fatal Flaw: Depending on the actions of the player, impulsiveness is this for Meredith. She might just be the most impulsive character V meets in the game. She has Anthony Gilchrist abducted and beaten just because she suspects he's Militech's mole. She only just meets V and almost immediately agrees to work together just because she thinks she can manipulate them. If V chooses to help her, then she randomly asks to meet for casual sex just for the hell of it. If V chooses not to, then she ends up being framed by the real mole and killed by Militech.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: She’s constantly shown taking drags from a cigarette during her meeting with V to show how stressed and paranoid she is, as well as cold and uncaring.
Honest Corporate Executive: What she is, surprisingly given her affiliation with Militech. Yes, she kidnaps Gilchrist, but that actually turned out to be the right move. And yes, if you allow, she also orchestrates a raid that utterly wrecks Royce's chapter of Maelstrom, but that's just Pay Evil unto Evil. If you play it straight with her, she will be equally honest and fair with you.
The Immodest Orgasm: Meredith certainly seems to enjoy her bedroom time with V if her volume's any indication.
Improbable Weapon User: After the Optional Sexual Encounter at the No-Tell Motel, she leaves behind a sex toy modified to function as a club. It's a surprisingly effective weapon.
Informed Attribute: The above description of her being egotistical is from official sources, but it doesn't fit her in-game personality at all. She is actually quite affable and her jerkassery fades after she realizes that V could help her.
Ms. Fanservice: She's already quite attractive in her initial corporate executive outfit, but what you see during her Optional Sexual Encounter lands her a solid spot in this category.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Stout's appearance bears a slight resemblance to Gillian Anderson or Rose Byrne.
Optional Sexual Encounter: If you play your cards right, you can score a single hookup with Meredith... but a full romance is not in those cards.
Pet the Dog: If you elect to do things her way, she meets V and Jackie outside the All Foods plant after the dust has settled with an insurmountable number of Militech soldiers and drones at her back. With Maelstrom now defeated and the duo cornered, she has the perfect opportunity to just kill them both and take back the Flathead, and indeed Jackie expects her to do exactly this. Instead, she actually keeps her word, despite working for Militech, and the duo not only walk away with their lives (to Jackie's amazement), but get to pretend the precious Flathead Fell Off the Back of a Truck.
Properly Paranoid: It is initially indicated that Anthony Gilchrist, the Militech corpo officer she's captured, is innocent of involvement in the Maelstrom attack on the convoy. If V disables the virus on the credit chip and Stout sends in her troops, Gilchrist will be waiting outside. He'll mention that he needs to have a talk with Royce, indicating that he was the one who fed Maelstrom the information on the convoy. And earlier inside the factory there's a tucked away terminal after you confront Royce and Dum Dum to the left of where you and Jackie jump down from behind the locked door, that contains an email from none other than Gilchrist pointing Maelstrom to the location of the hijacked Convoy.
Retcon: In the 2018 demo, Meredith was a nasty Corrupt Corporate Executive, a classist, egotistical Jerkass who backstabs V even if they 100% follow her plan to wreck Maelstrom. In the final game, she still gives a harsh first impression, but is actually much more reasonable once V proves to be just the asset she needs to fix her mess.
Stripperific: Her outfit at the No-Tell Motel is basically just a futuristic, bdsm harness, a thong and nipple pasties. It shows way more flesh than it covers.
You Have Failed Me: You can land Meredith in this trope with Militech. Assuming you don't help her hack into Maelstrom's systems and remove the daemon from the shard she gives you, Anthony Gilchrist, the guy who was beaten by her men, will be waiting for you outside Maelstrom's hideout, and vaguely allude to Meredith being "removed from her position" for failing to deliver a scapegoat to blame for the info leak. You can later find out what he means by that by going to Northside in Act 2.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Tries to pull this on both V and Maelstrom if you don't do what she says and spike the latter's data.

Anthony Gilchrist

A Militech agent accused by Meredith Stout of helping the Maelstrom gang steal one of the company's Flathead bots.

All for Nothing: Gilchrist betrayed Militech in hopes of saving his daughter. Unfortunately for him, Adam Smasher killed her anyway.
Blatant Lies: If Gilchrist winds up on top at the end of "The Pickup", he'll awkwardly mention to V and Jackie that he's due for "interrogating" Royce and the other surviving Maelstrom goons. It's a hint that he was The Mole all along.
Country Matters: He straight-up calls Meredith a cunt who's "as good as dead" when she hands V the spiked chip.
I Have Your Wife: Adam Smasher kidnapped Gilchrist's daughter to force him to work with Maelstrom... and then killed her anyway.
The Mole: Meredith thinks he's one for Maelstrom, having fed them info about the Militech convoy carrying the Flathead. Gilchrist vehemently denies this. Turns out Meredith's partly right. V can find proof of Gilchrist's treachery in a server room during their escape from the All Foods Factory. It's revealed however that not only was he unwilling, but that person he's answering to was Adam Smasher.
Pet the Dog: If he ends up on top instead of Meredith at the end of "The Pickup" mission, he will spare V and Jackie while letting them keep the Flathead, despite having every reason to kill them and further bury any evidence of Militech's embarrassing convoy loss.
Undignified Death: If V successfully outs Gilchrist as The Mole, they can find his naked, beat-up corpse in Act 2 near the same place they met Meredith.
You Said You Would Let Them Go: Adam Smasher kidnapped Gilchrist's daughter for his Maelstrom chooms. He killed her anyway.

Sampson

Peter "PJ" Sampson

A Militech employee who moonlights as a street racer and is (allegedly) responsible for the death of Claire's husband.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Sampson ends up begging for his life should Claire confronts him at gunpoint after he wipes out during the final race.
Ambiguous Situation: His involvement in the death of Claire's husband is this. Initially, Claire claims that Sampson caused the wreck that killed Dean by braking hard in front of their vehicle during the home stretch and forcing Dean to lose control. However, she later says that Sampson rammed their vehicle to cause the wreck. Sampson himself claims the crash was an accident, though he feels no guilt and believes Dean to be at fault anyways, and asserts that even if he did do it intentionally, he was only doing what anyone, even Dean himself, would have done in his place, given that the rules fully allow deadly aggression towards other racers, something that Claire comments on as early as the first race itself. At the end of it all, the only real established facts about the incident were that there was a wreck, Sampson was involved, and Dean ended up dead.
Boom, Headshot!: If V doesn't convince Claire to spare his life, he will end up with a few grams of lead in his head.
Cool Car: Quadra Type-66 Cthulhu, which you can get if you convince Claire to spare him.
I Owe You My Life: Convince Claire to spare him and he will send you his car.
Jerkass: He is extremely rude to Claire, to the point that he straight-up says to her face that Dean was not the loving husband she thought he was and that his death was his own fault.
Jerkass Has a Point: Then again, Sampson is correct in saying Claire is getting too worked up over her husband's death, as she is unable to accept that, regardless of whether or not the wreck was intended by Sampson, deaths on the race track are by no means something new, and Sampson was doing doing what anyone else, even Dean, would have done in his place.
The Rival: He served as the personal rival of Claire's husband for years, both when they worked together and again as street racers. Sampson always bested him and their conflict only came to an end when Dean died during a race.
We Used to Be Friends: Emails found in Claire's garage imply that Sampson used to be friends with Claire's husband, Dean, before Sampson got a promotion.

Lucas Harford

The current CEO of Militech, who is considered to have inherited the best traits of past Militech CEOs and seen as a close associate of NUSA President Rosalind Myers.

The Ghost: Harford is never encountered by V, though his presence is still felt through Militech.
Meet the New Boss: Lucas Harford is in many respects a continuation of Rosalind Myers' tenure as CEO with a different face.
Pet the Dog: While also a cutthroat CEO, he's mentioned as having a more charitable side. He once personally footed the bill for the medical treatments of a Unification Wars vet, as he genuinely believes that no American soldier should be left behind.
Pragmatic Villainy: Harford is known to be very pragmatic and level-headed in terms of his policies.
Puppet King: While praised as the spiritual successor to Gen. Donald Lundee, in practice, he's not only a faithful ally of Rosalind Myers, but as Phantom Liberty reveals, he's effectively running the MegaCorp in her stead.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: From what's known about Harford, he's essentially a more patriotic and less power-hungry version of Donald Lundee, who's long dead by 2077.
You Are in Command Now: He became CEO of Militech after Myers' resignation and subsequent entry into NUSA politics. Or rather, was discreetly appointed by her.

Introduced in Phantom Liberty

Dante Caruso

Voiced by: Steven Cree (English), Dawid Podsiadło (Polish)

One of Militech's "cyber-cowboys", undercover agents who seek out individuals who threaten corporate security and secrets. Although he does not enjoy his job, Dante views it as necessary to prevent those secrets from causing greater conflict in the world through exposure.

Consummate Professional: Dante's shown to be cold and strictly business, not so much because he's apathetic or amoral. But rather due to knowing how his line of work requires him to be Necessarily Evil.
Disco Dan: Downplayed. Chrome aside, Dante acts and looks like an undercover cop straight out of 1980s Miami, complete with '80s Hair.
He Knows Too Much: Part of Dante's job is to make sure that certain company secrets are kept that way, and if need be, eliminate anyone who could expose them. In this case, it's both the old Militech facilities hidden in Dogtown and whatever Bree Whitney's dug up for her scoop.
I Warned You: He constantly warns V against pursuing Bree Whitney or what she discovered from the old Militech facilities underneath Dogtown, even giving them one last chance to walk away. If V sides with Bree, he outright remarks how he's warned them before going hostile.
Ink-Suit Actor: His appearance is based on Dawid Podsiadło, his voice actor in the Polish localization.
Jerkass Has a Point: In addition to giving V ample warning to stay out of his way, he gives them very logical and plausible cause for keeping Militech's secrets and especially those involving Project Cynosure from being exposed.
Not Quite the Right Thing: As it turns out, killing Dante to protect Bree Whitney does nothing to save her life, let alone expose Project Cynosure to the world. Especially when Mr. Hands later on implies that NetWatch set a kill order against Bree, and definitely on V.
Nothing Personal: Given the choice, he'd rather not kill anyone other than his targets, even warning V several times to stand aside. Still, it's his job, and if the situation calls for it, he certainly will.
Meaningful Name: Dante's named after Dante Alighieri, author of the Italian poem The Divine Comedy, which famously features him venturing through the nine Circles of Hell as its first act, Inferno. Given Cynosure's own research into the Blackwall, which effectively is the Cyberpunk universe's version of Hell, it also doubles as a Ironic Name, as Dante's role as a "cyber-cowboy" means he has to stop people from digging too deeply into Militech's secrets involving it.
Shame If Something Happened: Much of his undercover lines to V beforehand is comprised of thinly-veiled warnings, advising them not to get involved or pursue Bree any further.

Lesser Corporations

Biotechnica

In General

Biotechnica

A small corporation that specializes in food production, bio-technology, and genetic engineering, headquartered in Rome. Its biggest contribution to the world is CHOOH2: a wheat-derived alcohol that has since replaced gasoline as the primary combustible fuel for vehicles.

Alcohol Is Gasoline: CHOOH2 (pronounced "chew two") is basically methanol that burns quicker and more efficiently than other alcohol fuels. Biotechnica does not actually produce the stuff, but rather it owns the special wheat crop that it licenses to other energy companies for CHOOH2 production.
Bio Punk: Biotechnica's other specialty is in genetics research and bioware distribution, with the latter marketed as being less intrusive by virtue of using nanotech and primarily biological material.
Black Site: The MegaCorp is also notorious for operating various clandestine facilities, in which it could conduct unethical research without anyone suspecting a thing.
Enemy Mine: Biotechnica is willing to work with at least some Nomad clans in disposing terrorists and "Raffen Shivs" like Wraiths, out of mutual interests. This relationship usually doesn't last long.
Grey Goo: Nanotechnology is a key ingredient in Biotechnica's signature bioware.
Leave No Witnesses: In order to keep its PR image intact, Biotechnica maintains its own private hit squads and hires mercs to make sure than anyone who could potentially expose the company's wrongdoing never gets the chance.
Peace & Love, Inc.: As a biotech company, they go for a much friendlier and less intimidating corporate image than the average MegaCorp, focusing on how they keep the world fed, warm, and healthy. Their own misdeeds are too notorious for them to even qualify as a Villain with Good Publicity, but they do get points for effort.
Research, Inc.: Biotechnica is not just the world's leading thinktank for biosciences and genetics, it is also one of the greediest and most ruthless. (In)famously, the corp regularly licenses out its genetically-engineered wheat genus to energy companies for CHOOH2 production, which they then have to renew for a hefty sum. Biotechnica is also accused of engineering crop-killing viruses to eliminate its competition in the food production and agriculture business.
The Scapegoat: In the Corpo lifepath's prologue segment, Biotechnica takes the blame for the massacre of the European Space Council (actually orchestrated by Arasaka), since it made the bio-interfaces that the Council was using at the time.

Joanne Koch

Dr. Joanne Koch

"I know people like you... Hired plenty myself. And I know you won't let me go."

The Regional Director for Research and Development, currently staying at the Republic Way Hotel. She is the target of the "Guinea Pigs" gig in City Center, in which V must neutralize her on behalf of a nomad clan that Biotechnica used some of its members as unwitting test subjects... with horrific results.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She looks demure and unassuming for a corpo, and even has a sweet voice to match, but make no mistake: she is a ruthless, sociopathic boss who'll gladly kill anyone to protect her research and her career.
Body Horror: Makes a career out of inflicting this on people For Science!. Think Josef Mengele as a corporate research chief. The experiment that signed her death warrant, Project Nightingale, ended up turning the internal organs of an entire town to mush.
Dirty Coward: Koch will flee to a nearby security station should V trip any alarms at the hotel, or if V agrees to give her time to save her research data before they kill her.
Disproportionate Retribution: What do you do if a colleague protests about the ethics of your own research? Fire her, of course! Said colleague threatens to blackmail you if you don't tell the Board to bring her back? Send Militech to kill her!
For Science!: She's trying to create an antibiotic that Biotechnica can then monopolize. If it means using nomads as test subjects without telling them the drug's side effects, so be it.
Lack of Empathy: Even when confronted by V at gunpoint, Koch expresses no remorse for what she did to the nomads, whom she considers to have died for a good cause.
Mad Scientist: A walking demonstration of why you shouldn't let sociopaths run pharmaceutical research. She liquefied an entire town's internal organs in a covert experiment that was blatantly illegal even by the relaxed judicial standards of the Dark Future, and then sent death-squads after anyone who might cause trouble in response.
Meaningful Name: Her surname is likely derived from Robert Koch, a microbiologist who identified the bacteria of tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, giving further support to the theory about infectious diseases. He actually won a nobel prize in 1905 for his research.
Pay Evil unto Evil: If V opts to bring her in alive to face the nomads' justice, Dino says that they will likely give Koch a "warm welcome" when she gets there.
Serial Killer: Functionally one of these - somewhere between Mission-Based and Hedonistic. She's in charge of Biotechnica's lethal pharmaceutical trials, and of ensuring the disappearance of anyone who might interfere with them, and she's far too enthusiastic about her job. Her database entry makes it clear that she had a long trail of corpses behind her even before Project Nightingale.
Too Dumb to Live: The Nomads are possibly the one faction that even Militech and Arasaka are reluctant to openly confront en masse^note, and Koch thinks it's a good idea to unleash a virus on them for "research purposes." And then she tries to buy the Nomads' forgiveness with a payout, something which Dino, the fixer administering the hit job, sardonically notes "doesn't work." Couple that with the fact that her conniving and backroom machinations within Biotechnica left her with few if any friends outside of those she has to pay for protection, and she was all but begging someone to put a hit on her.

Kang Tao

In General

Kang Tao

A Taiwanese and Chinese weapons and security corporation, specializing in the manufacture of smart-gun technology.

Bread and Circuses: Zig-Zagged. On the one hand, Kang Tao prides itself as being the fourth biggest and best corporation to work for in Night City, even providing employees with a Trauma Team Gold insurance package in exchange for signing a 50-year loyalty pledge. On the other hand, those perks seem rather selective, given how factory workers in Kang Tao's industrial complexes in China are more likely to be written off as casualty figures when an accident happens.
China Takes Over the World: Downplayed. Much like how Arasaka represents a lot of the fears of Japanese global hegemony from The '80s, Kang Tao embodies similar concerns of Chinese dominance from the 2000s onward. That said, it's content being in the same league as Arasaka and Militech rather than trying to depose either.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Kang Tao in the 2020s was a small yet prosperous weapons manufacturer notable for its focus on smart-gun tech and being one of the only Asian corporations not bought out by Arasaka. Since its restructuring in the 2040s, however, it's transformed into a powerful MegaCorp in its own right, even having significant influence within China and Taiwan comparable to its competitors.
Hufflepuff House: Played With. Compared to their fellow arms giants Arasaka and Militech, Kang Tao's physical presence is never really felt in-game, namely due to their lack of named characters and associated quest lines. As such, their status as an expanding corporation that threatens both of the old guard almost comes off as an Informed Attribute… at least until one uses their weaponry and realizes that all the praise on their bleeding edge tech isn’t just talk.
Macross Missile Massacre: One of their weapons is the L-69 Zhuo: an eight-barreled smart shotgun that is capable of sending each barrel's projectile (itself a miniature guided missile) into a different enemy.
One Nation Under Copyright: Never outright stated, but the very fact that they're playing in the same leagues as Arasaka and Militech (and can even steal high-value employees from the former and expect to keep them) suggests a comparable amount of domestic political influence. What this says about relations between China and Taiwan in 2077 is left to the player.
Pragmatic Villainy: Compared to its peers, Kang Tao tries to be more discreet about its corporate hijinks and is willing to offer fair, if not generous privileges for at least some of its employees.
Properly Paranoid: Kang Tao's modus operandi for snatching good talent from rival corporations (usually Arasaka) involves both fudging paperwork and highly-secure transport in a way that would keep suspicions low and allow said snatched talent to keep a low profile. Had V not captured Anders Hellman at the right time, it would have worked flawlessly.
Putting on the Reich: Similarly to Arasaka and Militech, Kang Tao has adopted its own take on the technofascist 'neomilitarist' aesthetic, with its mooks donning a mix of modern security gear and ancient Chinese armor.
Theme Naming: All of their famous smart weaponry are named after single Chinese character adjectives. Their smart pistol uses the character 超 “chao” (which is super), the smart submachine gun has 典 “dian” (meaning classic), and the smart shotgun is titled 卓 “zhuo” (which conveys excellence).
The Rival: Though said to be Arasaka's main competitor in the smart-gun market, Kang Tao generally enjoys being a thorn on their side by snatching away their best talents like Anders Hellman at every opportunity. The in-game database even notes that Kang Tao may have poached the Arasaka engineer who made the "Yukimura" smart pistol, since the Kang Tao A-22B "Chao" bears a lot of similarities to it.
Smart Gun: Kang-Tao's niche is small arms with smart ammo that will fly towards a locked on target even if the gun is aimed well away from the target. Assuming the angles are right and the targets have been locked on, the smart ammo will seek out their targets even around cover.

NetWatch

In General

NetWatch

A private organization funded by governments and corporations in order to protect the Net, in 2077 they are focused on maintaining the Blackwall, a massive virtual structure supposedly protecting people from the dangers lurking in the old Net.

Code Emergency: NetWatch has its own internal alert system in relation to threats, with those involving the Blackwall in some manner being dangerous enough to warrant extreme prejudice.
Fake Ultimate Hero: According to the Voodoo Boys, anyway. NetWatch agents claim to be humanity’s last line of defence against a Robot War because they built and maintain the Blackwall that keeps rogue AI caged. Brigitte, however, says that the Blackwall itself is an AI that does the job for them, and it will one day slip the leash too. Assuming certain choices were made in Phantom Liberty, Sandra Dorsett will later tell V that the Net is starting to act up and several NetWatch officers have started to mysteriously disappear.
Godzilla Threshold: As highlighted in Phantom Liberty, if someone is seen actively breaching the Blackwall, not only are they deemed a high-value threat by NetWatch but will go out of its way to immediately have said threat eliminated by any means necessary.
Law Enforcement, Inc.: A paid security company that acts with the authority of the government and corporations.
Pretentious Latin Motto: As shown on Mosley's badge in the Deep Dive gameplay, "Vos Videmus" (We Are Watching You (All)).
Private Military Contractors: The most "normal" example of such in the game in that they provide security for corporations and private citizens. Just information security, as a rule.
Turned Against Their Masters: What they claim is inevitable if the Blackwall is ever brought down and AI are let loose on the net. Alt and Delamain don't act like that, but there are other AIs beyond the Blackwall that could be as dangerous as they say.

Bryce Mosley

"If the Voodoo Boys breach the Blackwall, we'll all be fucked."

Voiced by: Shane Taylor (English)

"Any idea how many attacks from behind the Blackwall we've neutralized last year?"

A NetWatch agent who is holed up in the Grand Imperial Mall together with a band of Animals, running offensive against the Voodoo Boys in Pacifica.

Affably Evil: Provided V doesn't pull a gun on him, Mosley remains cordial with them and even offers to remove the self-destruct virus that Placide placed on their system beforehand. Being a NetWatch agent, however, he'll also use it as a chance to upload his own virus into V, for when they return to the Voodoo Boys' hideout.
Cassandra Truth: He tells V that the Voodoo Boys kill off all mercenaries working for them the second they outlive their usefulness. Johnny doesn't believe him and it's up to the player whether they feel the same.
Character Death: If V follows Placide's instructions, Mosley and all of his fellow NetWatch netrunners jacked in at the time, will die from the Voodoo Boys malware being uploaded into their heads.
Fan of the Past: He's fond of Westerns, watching them in the cinema while keeping the VDB busy. In response to the below exchange, V can rather pointedly recommend he check out Unforgiven, subtly casting doubt on the happy picture he presents.
Mosley: They depict a simpler, better time. One thing hasn't changed, though. Good guys still carry badges.
V: Righteous sheriff - think you mighta found NetWatch's new recruiting slogan.
Hero Antagonist: It's hard to say whether Mosley is evil or not, but the only reason he opposes V at all is because he's trying to stop the gang from poking holes in the Blackwall which keeps dangerous AIs from attacking humanity.
Laser-Guided Karma: The Voodoo Boys planned on killing him, his fellow agents, and V with a virus they implanted into V's cyberware. If V lets Mosley remove it, he'll replace it with a virus that forces Alt to kill all the Voodoo Boys netrunners instead.
A Lighter Shade of Black: He's a dyed-in-the-wool Corpo and he still uses V for his own ends, but is affable enough to clean out the Voodoo Boys' suicide attack software in V's head and doesn't directly kill V when they outlive their usefulness in attacking Alt and the Voodoo Boys, unlike vice versa with the latter (though any VDBs not plugged in at the time and now angry are not his concern).
Obfuscating Stupidity: Downplayed. While an evidently talented netrunner and backed by throngs of hired Animal mooks, Mosley himself comes across as deceptively harmless. Allowing him to slip in an trojan virus inside V to infect the Voodoo Boys without them realizing it.
Outdated Outfit: Instead of being decked out in some Neo-Militarism getup, Mosley is essentially dressed like a stereotypical engineer from the 1980s: white pinstripe dress shirt with a giant plastic work badge pinned on, necktie and grey slacks. It's unclear if this is standard NetWatch dress code or part of Mosley's Fan of the Past tendencies.
Spotting the Thread: This is how Mosley tries to convince V that the Voodoo Boys planted a virus in their cyberware. He asks them to run a system diagnostic, which comes up all clear. Then he has them run a second diagnostic and compare it to the first. It also comes up clean... with exactly the same results as the first, down to the decimal, marking it as a pre-recorded fake. He also tells them what the word "ranyon" means to the VDBs, and whether or not you take notice of Placide referring to V as such is on you.

Introduced in Phantom Liberty

Alan Noël

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_12_08_at_23_57_52_alan_noel_database_cp2077plwebp_webp_afbeelding_1134_1659_pixels_geschaald_75.png

Voiced by:

A NetWatch agent sent undercover amongst the Dogtown branch of the Voodoo Boys to investigate their corporate blackmail operations.

Affably Evil: Alan Noël may be an undercover Corpo involved with the Voodoo Boys who'll lunge at V if they so much try and kill Milko Alexis on the spot, but is cordial otherwise. He can even remark how Bryce Mosley had sent out a good word for V if they sided with him. He also has V's client given NetWatch protection, which Mr. Hands approves of if V takes him up on his offer.
Deep Cover Agent: He has evidently been working with the Voodoo Boys for months by the time V meets him. It's clear, however, that while he hates the assignment, he's not going to let all that work go to waste.
Going Native: Subverted. Noël's nailed the look and mannerisms rather well, befitting his deep-cover infiltration, but otherwise has an obvious disdain for everything the VDBs stand for.
Jerkass Has a Point: Alan warns V that killing Milko right there and then won't save their client, as he'll just be replaced by another VDB netrunner who'll finish the job anyway especially when he's just a cog in a much larger operation spanning the West Coast. If V sides with Alan, Mr. Hands will commend them due to their client being given NetWatch protection, while Alan himself will message them of apprehending the foreign arms dealer masterminding the operation.
The Needs of the Many: The reason why Milko has to be kept alive, or so Alan claims. While Milko himself is a nobody, he's still important in identifying and shutting down the ringleaders of the operation, thus saving more people from being targeted by them than V ever could by killing one man. Johnny, however, believes that he cares more about being "employee of the month" than the lives he's claiming to save.
Not Quite the Right Thing: If V kills Milko (and inevitably, Alan), their client will be saved...for the moment, until another Voodoo Boy netrunner replaces him. If V sides with Alan, however, it's later revealed that NetWatch is giving protection to their client, offering a more permanent and long-term solution that guarantees said client's survival.

Night Corp

In General

Night Corp Industries

A secretive corporation that deals with public works and urban development in Night City. It was originally a not-for-profit foundation created after the death of Richard Night, and has since dedicated itself to fulfilling his aspirations for the city he founded.

Greater-Scope Villain: Possibly. Night Corp's top-secret experiments with mind-controlling AIs is suspiciously similar to the Peralez mind-altering plot, hinting that the corporation is behind something really bad that is going on in Night City.
Motive Decay: It has gone from being devoted to preserving and improving the lives of Night City's citizens to radical experimentation in cutting edge technologies like AI, as well as brainwashing.
One Nation Under Copyright: Effectively, Night Corp IS Night City and the only reason the city is able to function in any sort of capacity at all. It was founded to try to preserve Richard Night's dream and was a major reason the city was able to recover from being nuked without a federal government.
Peace & Love Incorporated: Unlike other corporations in Night City, Night Corp is a bit more civic-minded — building roads, Maglev lines, and other infrastructure for the city's inhabitants, as well as providing scholarships and welfare to poor children like Jefferson Peralez. One datashard even says Night Corp is one of the best corporations for family-oriented individuals, as it only requires 80 mandatory work hours per week from its employees. That said, the crime, corruption, and poverty still running rampant throughout Night City shows just how sincere or successful the corporation is in its intention to improve people's lives. Not to mention Night Corp is now experimenting with mind-controlling AIs.
Pragmatic Villainy: Possibly insidious activities aside, Night Corp is noticeably pragmatic as far as a MegaCorp goes, by virtue of even having civic considerations and public interests in mind as part of its mandate. As such, keeping Night City afloat remains a top priority even if that has come to include brainwashing and AI experimentation.
The Spook: Among the myriad of megacorporations in Night City, Night Corp is by far the most mysterious. It is public knowledge that Night Corp runs the city's infrastructure, but that's about it. Most people are oblivious to the true extent of its power.

Sandra Dorsett

"When someone tells me not to worry, it usually means they're hiding something."

Voiced by:

"Look, I didn't pay you to come here and ask me personal questions."

A corpo netrunner whom V and Jackie rescue from a Scavenger den during the game's prologue. She reappears in Act 2, where she hires V to locate and retrieve her missing databank containing evidence of Night Corp's mind control AI experiments.

Damsel in Distress: When V and Jackie rescue her, she's half-dead, naked, and stuffed into an icy bathtub together with another corpse. While she largely recovers from her ordeal, Sandra is left with some serious emotional scars not even Trauma Team can completely fix.
Hero of Another Story: Reading the journal entries in her apartment makes it clear she is fighting a Greater-Scope Villain hinted at in the background, which could either be Night Corp itself or another entity that controls it. Assuming V resolves her sidequest positively beforehand, Phantom Liberty reveals she's still fighting the good fight. V can later ask a reluctant Sandra to help them hack MaxTac's convoy, but in exchange for their help in giving her a backdoor in their system (though she can be talked out of the latter with a high enough Cool stat).
Interface Spoiler: When V meets her in person again in Act 2, in the UI the yellow circumflex symbol of gangoons and corpos is hovering above her head, pointing out she can be attacked and killed with no repercussion. When scanned, all the equipped quickhacks are usable against her right away (contrary to normal non-hostile NPCs). Unsurprisingly, she can turn hostile depending on V's interaction with her.
The Mole: Not only does she steal top secret intel about the Carpe Noctem project from the company that hired her, she apparently also works for someone else acting against Night Corp's interests. One of Corpo!V dialogue options in Phantom Liberty has them asking her about her secret collaborator, to which Sandra only answers "no comment". One of her archived conversations also reveals she is in contact with someone in serious conflict with both Night Corp and NetWatch, which implies her sleuthing has something to do with malicious AIs in general.
Properly Paranoid: She's quite on edge when V encounters her again, and her apartment has a security turret that V is greeted with when they visit her. Justified, since she has dirt on Night Corp and thinks they're onto her. Considering she got kidnapped by Scavs not long after she learned about Night Corp's experiments (which led to the game's prologue), she's probably right. In Phantom Liberty, Sandra becomes a bit jumpy if V asks her help in the "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" gig, telling them they should stop using her number.
Schmuck Bait: Sandra explicitly asks V to not look into the databank's contents once they find it. If they do so anyway and admit to it, V will have an opportunity to earn a bigger reward by complimenting Sandra's netrunning skills and congratulating her for defying Night Corp. Alternatively, V can use the databank to blackmail her, but this will cause her (and her turret) to attack them.
Token Good Teammate: Sandra has a strong moral compass unlike most other corpos, given that she risked her life to expose the existence of Night Corp's experimental mind control AI, which she rightfully fears will be used on anyone in Night City once it passes the testing phase. She is also genuinely saddened to hear about Jackie's death if V decides to tell her about it.
Too Dumb to Live: If V tries to blackmail her with information they can get from her hacked databank, she will attack and try to kill V. Considering that V is an experienced merc, who at that point was able to earn their badass reputation by dealing with scavengers, the Relic heist, and combat against various gang members, cyberpsychos, corporate soldiers, and serial killers, that was pretty stupid idea.
Traumatic Haircut: Her hair is shorn off while she was held prisoner by the Scavengers, and in her next appearance, she's slowly growing it out.
Ungrateful Bastard: Downplayed and ultimately Subverted. While she is a little rude to V if they pry for more details about her databank's content and remind her about saving her life, she responds that V already got their payment for action. Justified, since the information she stole from Night Corp can be her undoing, and considering V is a mercenary working for money, she has no reason to trust them, making her rudeness being more out of paranoia than anything personal. Also, Sandra herself turns out to be a rather decent person.
Uriah Gambit: There is some subtle implication that Night Corp set her up to be the victim of one; She's an expert corpo netrunner, yet somehow the Scavengers, who are quite literally the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to Night City criminals, managed to get the drop on her and did so while she just so happened to be carrying a databank with some very compromising info on Night Corp on it. Said databank is then left completely untouched by the Scavengers, despite the fact that the faction is otherwise known for cracking open everything they can get their hands on, be it software, hardware, or people, as if they knew what was on it.

Trauma Team

In General

Trauma Team International

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/traumateamcorporation2077.png

A corporation specializing in rapid-response private medical service. They take their obligations to their clients very seriously and make sure to protect them by any means necessary. A Trauma Team unit is comprised of two pilots, two medics and two security officers.

Ace Pilot: Each team has two pilots to fly the team vehicle. They can navigate through the Combat Zone with ease.
Combat Medic: Their paramedics have military training and they are backed up by heavily armed security who are ready to gun down anyone they consider a threat to their client. They can occasionally be encountered tending to a downed client in the streets, with the medics and the security troops almost always marked with a skull icon indicating their lethality.
Consummate Professional: If someone is a Trauma Team client, they will do whatever it takes to protect them. This applies even if the client has attacked and been wounded by the Team in the process of rescuing another client. This is shown in the first mission when they massacre any Scavengers should you sneak past the latter and activate the chip to summon Trauma Team. The comic also shows that they put their missions above all else, including the well-being of their own.
Death by Ambulance: You don't want to get in the way of their ambulances. In the prologue mission, one of their flying cars can be seen shooting down what appears to be a gang hideout with a side-mounted machine gun. Upon arriving, they'll threaten V with guns while treating the woman they just saved and taze them if they do not back off.
Dr. Jerk: Even if you are trying to help their patient, Trauma Team members will be extremely aggressive towards you and attack from the slightest provocation. Their introduction in the game involves two of their security troopers covering V with rifles and a medic aggressively shoving V away from their client the moment she's been set down on a stretcher. Possibly justified since even someone trying to help might mess things up further in a medical emergency, and Trauma Team is there to make sure its clients survive, not random civilians. The Trauma Team comic shows that they have a blatant disregard for the Hippocratic Oath and standard protocol is to ignore anyone in need of medical aid who is not their client, including sick children and other Trauma Team medics.
Gas Mask Mooks: As seen in the tutorial mission, their dispatch agents wear gas masks and armored clean suits, likely to help avoid contaminating their hospitals and ambulances.
Jerkass Has a Point: Not so much about the ludicrous prices they charge their clients just for basic healthcare but more on the "acting hostile towards anyone who isn't a client" side:
- In a place like Night City, you really can't be too careful about anyone who approaches you, even if they're carrying their patient. Given the amount of junkies, gangers, and scavs on the street, all of which are looking for some quick eddies or a quick fix, you simply cannot afford to trust anyone who you are not 100 percent sure is your client needing help. Additionally, whoever induced Trauma Team's need to deploy to a particular client may have hostile intent towards their patient as well.
- The outrageous prices Trauma Team charges for their premium plans are at least somewhat justifiable in that rescuing clients within minutes of their being injured, even in combat zones, to potentially include bringing them back from the dead, are legitimately impressive feats.
A Lighter Shade of Black: As far as the setting's corporations go. They're every bit as selfish as any other corp but at least they do help people (so long as they pay) and don't hurt other people unless they get in the way of them helping their clients. They are still plenty evil (a random conversation between two TT members reveals that they enforce brain monitoring cybernetics on their staff for instance, and they are also accused of committing Organ Theft on clients who can't pay) but compared to the likes of Arasaka they're practically cuddly.
Private Military Contractor: Trauma Team specializes in extracting injured clients from dangerous situations and provide their agents with high-end military weaponry and training to accomplish their goal. When V first encounters Trauma Team, the agents act more like soldiers than EMTs, keeping V at gunpoint until they load their patient into the transport.
Properly Paranoid: Given how volatile Night City is even on an average day, Trauma Team personnel have every reason to go in heavily armed and ready to shoot, especially when there could still be hostiles close-by.

SovOil

In General

Soviet World Oil Industries

The richest corporation in the Neo-Soviet Union, specializing in petrochemicals, mining and heavy industry. With unmatched access to an incredibly valuable commodity and all its products, they're effectively the puppetmasters of the country. Of course, they realize that this power will only last as long as the oil continues to flow, and they're taking steps to ensure the company survives even afterward.

Arch-Enemy: SovOil is this to Texas-based Petrochem in the production of both conventional fossil fuels and CHOOH2.
Dirty Communists: Completely averted, as the Neo-Soviets have long since abandoned communism and the "corpo-socialist" SovOil emerged in the aftermath. However, the differences between the two are best left up to semantics, since the Neo-Soviets have essentially blurred the line between their governments and their corporations.
One Nation Under Copyright: Basically, they are typical Soviet-era state-owned enterprise... that now owns the state.
Post-Peak Oil: They're aware that there's only so much oil out there, and to ensure they survive after the last drop has been extracted, they're working to diversify- mining, construction, shipbuilding, vehicle design, electronics, R&D and CHOOH2 agriculture. By 2077, they're claiming to have mastered the first-ever truly environmentally friendly process for oil production.
Proxy War: It's mentioned in supplementary material that SovOil is fiercely competing with Petrochem over valuable land and resources, which in turn is a warped continuation of the long-standing rivalry between America and the USSR.

Katya Karelina

Voiced by:

An interrogator for SovOil, Katya suddenly found herself in the crosshairs of her own company following an interrogation gone wrong.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Once V makes it clear their new mission is to kill her, she immediately breaks down and begs for her life even offering the coordinates to her personal stash in Dogtown.
Dead Person Impersonation: She poses as Mark Bana up to the point of meeting V face-to-face.
Killed Offscreen If you spare her during Spy in the Jungle, you can later find Katya's dead body lying in a sinkhole by the Luxor Wellness Spa. A shard on her body reveals that SovOil had no intention of letting her live with her info and sent a hit squad to finish her off.
Leave No Witnesses: On the receiving end by SovOil who have been killing everyone involved in Mark Bana's death to avoid jeopardizing a key oil deal.
Torture Technician: Was one for SovOil who used her background in anesthesiology to keep victims going even under heavy interrogation.

Zetatech

In General

Zetatech

One of the leading aerodyne and wetware manufacturers in the world, based out of Cupertino, California. Zetatech started out as a small software company but has since diversified its portfolio after it landed big contracts following the Fourth Corporate War.

Attack Drone: They may be sporting different corporate colors, but many of the drones V fights against throughout the story are actually made by Zetatech.
Flying Car: Zetatech's best-selling product line. It's a fair bet to say most of the large flying vehicles one could see in Night City's skyline are Zetatech-made, such as the "Atlus" AVs used by Trauma Team and the massive "Surveyor" flying buses that deliver MaxTac cops to a hotzone.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Zetatech started out as a typical, small tech firm in Silicon Valley. Decades of savvy, cutthroat business practices later, and a bit of luck, the corp has become a formidable power in its own right, to the point that Zetatech has enough power to temporarily shut down Night City's airspace if it so wanted.

Hasan Demir

Voiced by:

An engineer with Zetatech, Hasan's talent was supposed to lead him to the big time but instead trapped him within a corporate leash.

Didn't Think This Through: Hasan's plan to leave Zetatech was to chip himself with the prototype eye implant V is tasked to find, then have his buyer safely remove it and send him on his way with his eddies. What he didn’t plan for was that his buyer would immediately double-cross him, sedating him pretty much the moment he walked into their clinic and tossing him back into the streets with no payment and no prototype.
I Owe You My Life: Ensuring Hasan gets to walk free but securing the implant for Zetatech by calling Mr. Hands, who rather graciously acquiesces to the request without much convincing (even supplying transport and getting Hasan to a trustworthy Ripperdoc), eventually nets you an Iconic Tech pistol called "Ambition", as he personally thanks V for ensuring he got to walk away while still being able to make something of a living in Dogtown (as much of one as one can get in it, anyway).
Ungrateful Bastard: If you allow Hasan to walk away with the tech like he asks, you can later find him implant-less and broke on Elizabeth Kress street. Despite begging for V to let them walk during the gig, he'll now bitterly scream at you to piss off.

EBM

In General

Euro Business Machines

Euro Business Machines (EBM) is a German-based megacorporation that generalized in the manufacture of computer products, information technology and electronics. At its peak, EBM had a highly influential market presence, along with some of the largest employee and troop counts in the world.

Germanic Efficiency: EBM at its zenith was a MegaCorp that gave Arasaka a run for its money, and not only embodied the best and worst of German corporate culture, but also had enough money to fund its own private army and operate various underground facilities in the Alps.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: In the 2010s and 2020s, EBM was one of the world's top megacorps, having a virtual monopoly over computer manufacturing and wielding significant economic power. While still around by 2077, however, it's generally treated in the past tense as a has-been, with its presence in Night City represented by the crumbling EBM Petrochem Stadium in Dogtown and Fourth Wall Studios, a sketchy BD studio in Japantown aiming to capitalize on Joshua Stephenson's "vision."
Hufflepuff House: Despite its historical prominence, EBM doesn't have much of a presence during the events of 2077, outside of a crumbling station in Dogtown, a sketchy BD studio, and some mentions in in-game media. Given the circumstances that brought down the MegaCorp from its high pedestal, it's not too surprising.
Impoverished Patrician: Downplayed. EBM still has deep enough pockets to get its way, but the days when it could stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Arasaka are long gone. It's also not unheard of for EBM to lay off long-time employees just to keep itself afloat.
Motive Decay: EBM rapidly went from providing the best computers and electronics in the market to striving to be the only player in it, by seizing absolute control over as many companies as possible.
Noodle Incident: Little is given about the failed coup attempt in Germany that ultimately brought down EBM, let alone when it happened. Only that it involved the MegaCorp backing some unsavory "gene-freaks" and that it likely happened some time during the Unification Wars, given the unfinished EBM Petrochem Stadium in Dogtown.
One Nation Under Copyright: Subverted. It came close to assuming effective control over Germany and Switzerland. Chances are, it might have succeeded had it not been for a failed coup attempt that resulted in its implosion a few months later.

Rachel Casich

A braindance producer at Fourth Wall Studios, an EBM subsidiary. She crosses paths with V while attempting to create a braindance about Joshua Stephenson and his quest to find catharsis through crucifixion.

Everyone Has Standards: When the crucifixion finally takes place, Casich is noticeably disturbed and muted after witnessing the event, even if she can't quite explain what's wrong.
Hidden Depths: She reveals that she has a spiritual side and meditates to center herself. She's also personally offended by Stephenson's proselytizing because she feels that genuine spirituality is a deeply personal matter, and that preaching and trying to convert others is wrong.
Manipulative Editing: She talks openly of making changes to Stephenson's scroll to make the narrative tug at viewers' heartstrings and increase sales.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: When questioned about the legality of producing a mainstream braindance depicting the actual torture and death of its subject, Rachel points out that her studio is funded by EBM and that the corp has deep enough pockets to change any laws and regulations that will get in the way.
What the Hell, Hero?: If V reinforces Stephenson's doubts through dialogue options, Casich will call V out over ruining an expensive investment.

Characters / Cyberpunk 2077: Corpos and Corporations

Edit Locked

Major Corporations

Arasaka

Arasaka Corporation

Executives

Saburo Arasaka

Yorinobu Arasaka

Hanako Arasaka

Board of Directors

Michiko Sanderson (née Arasaka)

Employees

Goro Takemura

Adam Smasher

Anders Hellman

Sandayu Oda

Arthur Jenkins

Susan Abernathy

Frank Nostra

Jeremiah Grayson

Militech

Militech International Armaments

Meredith Stout

Anthony Gilchrist

Peter "PJ" Sampson

Lucas Harford

Introduced in Phantom Liberty

Dante Caruso

Lesser Corporations

Biotechnica

Biotechnica

Dr. Joanne Koch

Kang Tao

Kang Tao

NetWatch

NetWatch

Bryce Mosley

Introduced in Phantom Liberty

Alan Noël

Night Corp

Night Corp Industries

Sandra Dorsett

Trauma Team

Trauma Team International

SovOil

Soviet World Oil Industries

Katya Karelina

Zetatech

Zetatech

Hasan Demir

EBM

Euro Business Machines

Rachel Casich

Previous

Index

Next