Characters / Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Cyberpunk 2077 Main Character Index
V | Johnny Silverhand | Allies | Corpos and Corporations | Criminals, Fixers and Gang Members | Phantom Liberty

In the City of Dreams, there are two equally unpleasant groups that most citizens can rest easy knowing they won't have to deal with: The first is the Federal Intelligence Agency, the so-called "spooks" who are in charge of all the shady dealings in the good old New United States Of America—but, since Night City isn't part of the NUSA, it's rare that you'll run across an FIA agent looking for trouble, what with Arasaka practically drooling for an excuse to reignite their old Unification War-era feud. The second group is the denizens of Dogtown—much closer, down in Pacifica, but...well, even the foolhardiest of gonks are reluctant to go to Pacifica of their own free wills, let alone the hellhole that is Dogtown itself, and Dogtown's inhabitants aren't in any hurry to leave...if they can leave. So yeah, dwellers of Night City, sleep long and peaceful, knowing that despite the insanity that happens on the daily, nobody in their right fucking mind is crazy or desperate enough to tangle with both those groups at the same time...

...Right?

This is the tropes page for characters featured in the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk 2077.

---

The New United States of America

In General

The resurrected United States of America that's emerged from the ashes of the Collapse. The rebranding of the country as the New United States of America was completed sometime between the end of the Fourth Corporate War and 2040, following the reforms of President Elizabeth Kress. Since the ascension of President Rosalind Myers, it has been reclaiming much of the old Union.

---

• After the End: The Collapse killed at least a hundred million Americans and possibly many more than that.
• Ascended Extra: Phantom Liberty puts greater emphasis on the NUSA and Militech, which previously were overshadowed by Arasaka plot-wise.
• Back from the Brink: The United States was a shattered husk of its former self after the Collapse and no one assumed it was anything worth worrying about. Elizabeth Kress' annexation of Militech, the fall of Arasaka Tower in 2023, and Rosalind Myers' ascension to the White House, however, resulted in the NUSA becoming powerful enough to launch the Reunification and reclaim large amounts of its former territory.
• Civil War: The Unification War was fought between the NUSA and the Free States with NUSA overcoming and assimilating most of the latter.
• Crapsack Only by Comparison: The NUSA is a semi-functional country whose government is not only a deeply flawed shell of its old democratic foundations with a State Sec to match via the FIA, but also heavily intertwined with Militech. Yet compared to the corporate free-for-all that's Night City, the stubbornly independent yet dysfunctional Free States, and Arasaka-controlled Japan, that's already considered a significant enough improvement in terms of living conditions.
• Divided States of America: Since the Collapse, the Old United States has remained divided, though by 2077, the NUSA has succeeded in reuniting with much of its former territory. Of the various Free States that seceded over the years, only Texas and Night City remain fully independent due to the Unification Wars. The other Free States nominally recognize the NUSA's authority but remain stubbornly autonomous, with the "Western Corporate States" in the Pacific Northwest in particular being a glorified corpo playground.
• Eagleland: A mixture of Types 1 and 2. The federal government is a horribly flawed organization intertwined with Militech but arguably much better than direct corporate rule or independence.
• Emergency Authority: The chaos following both the Collapse and Fourth Corporate War severely eroded America's democratic institutions, to the point that Elizabeth Kress was forced to enact martial law and effectively became President for Life. It wouldn't be until Myers steps in that those rotted ideals are even humored.
• Fallen States of America: The Collapse shattered the original United States, leaving what remained of the Union and its successor states as third world countries in all but name, filled to the brim with crime and violence as well as both political and corporate corruption. Compared to 2020s, however, the modern NUSA is an improvement, having succeeded in regaining control over much of America, clawing its way up to being the world's 24th largest economy, and on the cusp of reclaiming its old glory.
• Government Conspiracy: The Old United States buckled when one such plot by the "Gang of Four" to usurp power backfired dramatically. Another one is brewing in the NUSA, however, spearheaded by President Myers.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: The NUSA and Militech are involved in a lot of shady, if not outright evil, activities that the player has seen throughout the main game. However, it is clear that there are people like Solomon Reed and Myers who actually believe in their dream of restoring the United States and have some personal code of honor. For example, they actually live up to their promise of curing V, unlike Arasaka.
• Necessarily Evil: The Old United States had many flaws but its existence was a net positive compared to the current state of the USA's former territories. As such, the NUSA operates under the philosophy that conquering the rest of the United States via military force, as well as tolerating if not outright permitting Militech's murky hijinks, is justified if it means changing an unpalatable status quo and reclaiming America's rightful place in the world.
• One Nation Under Copyright: Since the Fourth Corporate War and Militech's nationalization by the NUSA, the two have become incredibly intertwined, to the point that it's become hard to tell where the federal government ends and the MegaCorp begins.
• Proxy War: Since the Unification Wars, a covert one has been waged between the NUSA (through Militech) and Arasaka over the Free States. It's also known to be waging these in various third world countries, whether for geopolitical purposes, Militech profits, or both.
• Regime Change: While Militech considers investing in conflicts good for business, the NUSA specifically has a penchant for propping up pliable third world governments and toppling unfriendly ones...which usually coincides with Militech's bottom line anyway. Though under President Myers, the federal government is more likely to use FIA spooks to get the job done quietly than stage open military coups like in the old days.
• Trauma Conga Line: The Collapse, in a nutshell, was this for the United States, in which things went From Bad to Worse. What started as an economic crisis in the wake of the Crash of 1994 rapidly escalated into widespread unrest and societal breakdown, the assassination of the seating President, and an attempted coup of the federal government by a shadowy cabal comprised of the NSA, CIA, FBI, and DEA (known as the "Gang of Four"). By the time it ended in 2008, America went from being the world's superpower to a dysfunctional third world-style malaise that the NUSA is still recovering from by 2077.
• Vestigial Empire: The United States is nothing compared to what it used to be, but has actually improved dramatically from its lowest point. The Tower ending all but states that the NUSA won't stay "vestigial" for long.

Rosalind Myers

Rosalind Myers

"I ask you to fight against those who would divide us. With debate. With pride. With blood and iron."

Voiced by: Kay Bess (English)

The current president of the NUSA and the former CEO of Militech, who V is tasked to save during the events of Phantom Liberty.

---

• Action Politician: Despite needing to be extracted by V after crash landing in Dogtown, as a former marine she's no slouch with a rifle and can defend herself. When sneaking alongside V, she's even able to choke out enemies.
• Allegorical Character: There are two overarching, oppressive forces in the Cyberpunk genre: The corporate world and the government. Trusting either always comes with a heavy price. As the former CEO of Militech and the current president of NUSA, Myers represents both. She is untouchable by V, but she has a hand in literally everything that makes the Cyberpunk world move. The whole reason why Arasaka is only in NC and nowhere else in the New United States is because of Myers. She is also the reason why Songbird is dying and so desperate for a cure. Regardless of whether Songbird or V is cured by NUSA, both of them are cured at a very heavy cost, assuming that Songbird is cured regardless.
• Apple of Discord: Not outright stated, but almost certainly the case. She has Songbird betray Reed, which leads to him almost getting killed by Arasaka. This does two things. It separates Songbird from her biggest ally in Washington and even if Reed survives, there will be enormous trust issues on both sides. She has the FIA give Alex a story about Reed betraying his squad to Arasaka. As a result Alex doesn't trust Reed, is furious with him and despite knowing Alex is in Dogtown, he doesn't visit her for 6 1/2 years. If these trust issues didn't exist between Songbird, Reed and Alex, Phantom Liberty's plotline would have progressed far more smoothly, Songbird would not have felt the need to go to extreme lengths and getting her away from Myers would have been far easier. Instead Myers can come out on top, largely due to the agents not being in sync.
• Badass in Distress: She is far from being a damsel in distress. As a former marine, she's capable of kicking ass. The problem is that she crash lands in the middle of Dogtown, which is not only located in the Pacifica Combat Zone, but is also home to an armed militia group that either wants her dead or captured. This prompts Songbird to request V for help and rescue her before Kurt and his BARGHEST can get their hands on her.
• Being Evil Sucks: Myers is fully aware how morally questionable and illegal her actions are such as using Songbird to breach the Blackwall and admits to feeling the weight of what she does. However, she does so because she feels it is ultimately Necessarily Evil if it will help her make her dream of a unified America a reality.
• Big Bad: If Songbird isn't this for the Phantom Liberty expansion, then she is. Pretty much everything wrong in Dogtown can be traced back to her. She abandoned the troops sent to invade Night City in Operation Midnight Storm, causing Hansen to defect and start BARGHEST, causing no end of trouble for both the NUSA and Arasaka (and, as a minor detail, caused the lethal breakup of Reed's cell and by having Songbird betray him to appease Arasaka). She also resurrected Militech's old AI experiments and took them to new, incredibly unethical heights, condemning Songbird to unendurable torment (and thus guaranteeing she'd go rogue) and putting humanity at risk from an apocalyptic Robot War. She moves to the forefront as the main villain if you choose to side with So Mi, personally overseeing an indiscriminate attack on Night City's spaceport by NUSA special forces in an effort to finally rid herself of both of you.
• Big Good: The closest one can get in a world like Cyberpunk. Songbird asks for V's help rescuing her from Kurt and his BARGHEST troops, and Myers orchestrates the counter-offensive by pointing V in Reed's direction. That said, it's very much a case of Good Is Not Nice; Myers will do what she feels she must to accomplish her goal of American unity, with her treatment of Songbird being the most blatant evidence of how far she will go to see her ambition fulfilled. The only thing that separates her from the likes of Arasaka is that she will honor her agreement and follows through on her promise to help V. Meanwhile, a line in the Streetkid Lifepath implies that Atlanta is an even worse Hellhole than NC, casting Meyers supposedly good intentions into doubt.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Played with. When you first meet President Myers, she carries herself as an American patriot and surprisingly amicable with V, a lowly mercenary she knows little about beyond what Songbird has told her of them. Beneath that, however, is an almost zealous ambition to restore the New United States back to its former glory before the Time of the Red and the rise of megacorporations like Arasaka. This ambition leads her to committing numerous crimes that break international treaties, with the biggest being the sole unanimous agreement among all countries and corporations that whatever's beyond the Blackwall is better left alone; Myers has ordered Songbird to breach the Blackwall and conduct research on it and the AI lurking behind it, deeming the effects such intrusions cause to Songbird as Necessarily Evil.
• Blood Knight: Downplayed. President Myers mentions how surreal her predicament is, as normally she'd be back in the White House doing her evening routine. V, however, can notice that not only does she not really miss said routine, but that as harrowing as the whole situation is, a part of her misses the action, just like in her USMC days.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: While V is tasked with rescuing her and protecting her after the crash in Dogtown, President Myers is hardly a pushover, being a trained marine who's not afraid of holding and using a gun, which she demonstrated in one of the trailers. When V first encounters her and she attacks thinking that they're trying to hurt her, you need a maxed out Body stat to disarm her.
• The Chains of Commanding: While Myers has little to no qualms about doing what she believes should be done, she neither revels in it, nor takes the ramifications lightly. Even early on, she can remark to V with some sincerity on how the costs of her actions as NUSA President weigh heavily.
• Deal with the Devil: The Phantom Liberty endings make it clear that handing over Songbird to her for a cure will NOT end well for Songbird. She has a life of glorified slavery to look forward to under the thumb of the very woman she tried so desperately to escape, Myers can continue to use people like disposable tools and while V lives it's at the cost of everything they held dear.
• Detrimental Determination: She's a Principles Zealot unbreakably shackled to the cause of restoring America as an imperial power, which would be a dubious enough goal (given the NUS's heavy fascist tendencies and the lakes of blood already in its wake) even if she wasn't selling out humanity to Mechanical Abominations to accomplish it.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Dies very unceremoniously in Phantom Liberty should V fail its opening mission. Songbird will be horrified and angrily chew V out for letting Myers die before cutting off all contact...and that's it.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Prior to Phantom Liberty, Myers had a fairly generic appearance seen on TV where she has a regular suit and long blue hair◊.
• Easily Forgiven: President Myers is not only fairly lenient with V if they're particularly flippant but is even willing to have any crimes committed by them against Militech and the NUSA waived if they succeed. This gets particularly played up if V sides with Songbird and does "The Killing Moon" mission, as through Reed, she sincerely offers V full amnesty and access to the cure (which V has just learned that Songbird planned to keep for herself) if they hand Songbird over, a sharp U-turn from ordering death squads to hunt down V and Songbird just hours prior. If V sides with Reed but kills Songbird, however, she's much less forgiving and will outright rescind her offer for a cure.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: After finding an abandoned building to hide in, you can find a shard that details Myers' further plans, which include giving a call to her mom.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • While taking a moment to collect herself in the remains of an old Militech exhibit, Myers remarks how Dogtown devolving into a ruined monument to corporate hubris is not only poetic, but with the millions, if not billions of eddies wasted building it, said waste was a fitting enough punishment. This also betrays her own contempt towards the existing status quo.
  • As highlighted in the Devil ending, Myers considers Saburo Arasaka's "resurrection" to be unnatural and abhorrent. It's left vague whether this is purely for show or if she genuinely harbors misgivings about the implications of Arasaka's "Secure Your Soul" program.
  • Also, ruthless as she is in her pursuits as The Unfettered, she reveals a surprising level of empathy and regret over all of the people who die under her command — which is best shown when she is furious beyond belief at Hansen for getting her staff members killed aboard Space Force One just to get at her. This, rather than simply because he tried gunning for her, is what motivates Myers to finally order the hit on Hansen during Songbird's rescue operation despite his authority and influence he holds, consequences be damned.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: This only comes into play during the course of the story with the utter havoc Songbird unleashes in her bid for independence. In the backstory, Myers reliance on researching the Blackwall as a means to propel the USA to reach its former glory has possibly catastrophic implications. The entities on the other side (at least the ones CYNOSURE came into contact with) are cruel, mocking entities that are transparently disgusted by humanity, and if you help Myers achieve her goals you learn said entities are actively relying on individuals like Myers trying to exploit them, to gain better understanding of humanity. They also support further advancement of humanity's technological progress, for the sake of physical bodies to inhabit. Like when the entities completely take over Songbird in "Somewhat Damaged", and that's the primitive version. Myers' actions do seem to be achieving the results she desired; The Tower ending shows Militech starting to gain a massive threshold in Night City, seemingly as a prelude to the NUSA actively taking it over. It's possible that Myers damned not only the NUSA, but all of humanity in the process, something the Erebus AI is very happy to point out.
• The Extremist Was Right: Rosalind Myer's Presidency has largely benefited the NUSA, despite the Unification Wars being not entirely successful. Her ruthlessness and breaking of international law has restored much of America's economy as well as former influence. The Tower ending all but confirms this. Time will tell if this remains the case.
• Foil:
  • To Saburo Arasaka. Both of them are powerful leaders who see themselves as stalwart protectors of their homelands. Myers is resentful of how America had been laid low from its "rightful" place) and will do whatever it takes to strike back. They both hail from military backgrounds (the Imperial Japanese Navy and the US Marine Corps). But Myers emphasizes American values and democracy, contrasting Arasaka's penchant for fear and Imperial Japanese virtues. She's also shown to have paradoxically less qualms about going the extra mile if it means restoring American greatness, but Arasaka has some lines he wouldn't cross to get his way. Both offer V their own respective Deal with the Devil, but Myers is a woman of her word and gives V exactly what they're seeking, even if it's at the cost of losing a shot at being a legend permanently. Arasaka is a dark-clad, Japanese man who never gets his hand dirty, but Myers is a white-clad, American woman who can and will throw down.
  • To Mayor Lucius Rhyne. Both are democratically elected (at least nominally) leaders. Rhyne is mostly beloved in Night City, while Myers is loathed there for what she means to its independence. The most significant contrast is their widely divergent developments as The Idealist: Rhyne compromised his ideals little by little until in the end he was little more than just another corrupt politician doing the corporations' bidding. Myers holds on to her ideals with frightening tenacity as she believes any means can be justified in striving towards her vision.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Unlike Reed and Alex, she is not a spy, but an ex-marine who will knock you on your ass if your body stat is not a full 20, indicating someone who would need to have a very high body stat herself.
• Good Counterpart: Downplayed. While she's still a rather ruthless individual, she's this to Saburo Arasaka — he's an unapologetic Japanese imperialist who aims to make the world that rejected their "rightful rule" through the long game of leaving everyone (especially America) heavily dependent on him and the Arasaka Corporation's gifts, though it's clear that he doesn't really care about Japan itself so much as personal power over it, given the shape the Japanese state is in under Arasaka's reign. Rosalind Myers, on the other hand, does genuinely have the best interests in mind for the NUSA, wanting to restore America to its lost glory and rather than rule through fear, she at least humors the long-dead democratic process unlike many corporate CEOs. That said, Saburo had lines even he wouldn't cross, few as they were, while she is firmly The Unfettered, who'll do anything and everything to achieve exactly what she thinks is best for the NUSA. She is a reminder that a self-righteous person can be far more dangerous than one who is out for power.
• Good Running Evil: Played with. Prior to being NUSA President, Myers rose through the ranks of Militech and became its CEO, despite being aware of the murkiness going on. This all serves, allegedly, as part of a Long Game to restore American glory and topple the corporate status quo, but whether this is a noble motive that she's accomplishing via noble means is something that the story and characters of Phantom Liberty raise a great deal of doubt over.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Early on, Meyers mocks the former NUSA President Elizabeth Kress for fully disregarding any pretense of democracy. She herself, however, was Kress's handpicked successor, and isn't blind to how she got to her position in the first place.
• I Did What I Had to Do: She considers her actions both during her time as Militech CEO and as President of the NUSA, no matter how excessive or low they may be, necessary for the greater good of America. Even if this means having the Blackwall breached or leaving Night City to a death spiral as Arasaka withdraws.
• I Gave My Word:
  • If a deal is reached between two thugs who end up at the same hiding place Myers and V find instead of handling them with force, her personal notes include a line about an anonymous payment to the two of them. That said, a later message from Reed, should V inquire about them casts this in doubt and suggests that the NUSA had them killed after all.
  • The Tower ending reveals that Myers more than lives up to her end of the bargain in having V cured, even if it comes at the expense of them fading away into obscurity for the rest of their life, and potentially being indebted to the NUSA and Militech.
• Internal Reformist: Played with. She used to be the CEO of Militech, which had evidently grown more intertwined with the federal government under her watch. On the other hand, she resents the corporate status-quo and was known to have had a reformist zeal that earned her more enemies than friends among the MegaCorp's executives. So much so that she likely might have gotten a vote of no confidence had she not beat her rivals to the punch by voluntarily resigning in order to enter the halls of government.
• Iron Lady: The current president of the NUSA, currently serving her third term. Adding onto that is the fact that she's an ex-Marine and the former CEO of Militech, one of the most powerful corporations in the Cyberpunk universe.
• Karma Houdini: In most outcomes where V hands So Mi over to the NUSA, Myers gets away with her life, reputation, and covert plots unscathed. The notable exception to this being the Devil ending. Keep in mind that the whole reason So Mi is the way she is now is because Myers keeps forcing her to go into the Blackwall.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In the Devil ending, despite Myers' misgivings with Saburo Arasaka's "resurrection", she agrees to meet him in person to lay the foundations for a lasting peace between all parties. Likely knowing that going against Arasaka now would be against America's interests.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Reed purposefully omits certain details of the mission in his reports to Myers, such as how Songbird actually betrayed her or that she's a willing hostage of Hansen's, and his original plan in capturing Songbird was to personally find a way to shield her from Myers's wrath. Similarly, So Mi didn't tell her that repeated intrusions into the Blackwall have been slowly killing her, though this has to do with the fact Songbird hates Myers as she's the one who ordered her to pierce the Blackwall in the first place. Then again, just looking at So MI should have keyed Myers in on the breaches being bad for her health.
• The Men First: While she's more than willing to use people as she sees fit to advance her goals, Myers does genuinely care for the people under her command, and takes their deaths and suffering seriously. This also means that not only does she take ultimate responsibility, but she also prefers that her enemies go after her specifically rather than her subordinates and pawns.
• Mirror Character:
  • To Yorinobu Arasaka. Both deeply resent the status-quo, will do whatever is necessary to change the system and have used their respective corporate links in Militech and Arasaka Corporation for that express purpose. That being said, while Yorinobu's dead-set on destroying Arasaka from within, he never really considers what happens after he achieves his goal. Myers, by comparison, never intends to destroy Militech but has leveraged her tenure there alongside her current role as NUSA President as part of a long-term plan involving the restoration of American greatness, even if it means that many might have to suffer in the meantime. Adding to that, both have faced pushback from within their respective corporations at various points in their careers in their attempts to assert power except that Myers was able to make the jump into politics before she could be ousted from corporate leadership.
  • To Hanako Arasaka. She is a white-clad woman who claims to serve a greater good. Her family for Hanako, the NUSA for Myers. The Arasaka clan saw Hanako's role as being the one who kept them together, whereas Myers job is to keep the NUSA together and make it stronger. While Myers is undoubtedly the one in charge as opposed to Hanako consistently following Saburo's wishes, both are also willing to do absolutely horrific things for those greater goods. Hanako is willing to kill her brother to bring her father back, while continuing to sell the "Secure your soul" program to the rich. Myers is willing to continuously send So Mi into the Blackwall (which is internationally illegal, potentially globally catastrophic and killing So Mi) to further strengthen the NUSA. Hanako deals with Soulkiller, Myers deals with Cynosure. Both also offer V medical procedures that might be able to save their life and both offer V a cushy job. In both cases helping them out will cause Johnny to call you out for basically making a Deal with the Devil; however, while "The Devil" completely sours Johnny's relationship with V regardless of how well it was before, with his last words being a bitter remark about how V's still no better than the thief they were at Konpeki Plaza, choosing "The Tower" while having a good relationship with Johnny has him calm down, genuinely thank V for letting them call him their friend and wish them well on whatever awaits them after the surgery, before finally saying goodbye using V's real name.
    • This also parallels how each ending goes; "The Devil" ending does not cure V of their predicament, as even Arasaka can't repair the damage to their body, and so V has to choose between becoming an engram or returning to Earth to enjoy a few weeks of freedom. "The Tower" ending at least nets them a long life, even if it comes at the cost of everything that made it worthwhile, from their relationships to their capacity for Edgerunner work and with it their ability to be anybody in Night City.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Downplayed. If V fails to protect Myers early on, the worst they seemingly get is a price on their head though it's implied that Militech and the NUSA will continue her plans anyway in most endings except "The Devil".
• Named Weapons: She uses an unique Tsunami Kyubi assault rifle named Hawk that V can pick up in "Lucretia My Reflection". Its description even states that it's been "(...)Serving President Myers well for many years.".
• Nerves of Steel: As V finds out via Songbird earlier on, not even Space Force One's imminent crash is enough to break Myers' unflappable stride, calmly preparing for the inevitable even while drinking her gin of choice.
• Patriotic Fervor: Even with her corporate background, she genuinely sees herself as an American patriot first and foremost, and will do whatever she deems necessary to bring the NUSA to true greatness by any means.
• Permanent Elected Official: Implied. Myers is into her third term as NUSA President, with the political know-how (and Militech backing) to keep herself in power. Her predecessor meanwhile, Elizabeth Kress, held the office for 44 years. That said, she does at the very least humor the legacy of America's democratic institutions.
• Power Hair: Keeps her blonde hair cut in a short, slicked-back pompadour.
• Our Presidents Are Different:
  • President Action: A former soldier who proves herself extremely challenging prey for BARGHEST and a valuable ally for V during the early stages of Phantom Liberty, even saving their life on at least one occasion.
  • President Evil: Make no mistake, she's an impressively charismatic Benevolent Boss most of the time (provided there's no especially compelling reason for her to betray you), but she's still the head of the very leviathan that Night City has been living in the shadow of for the past several decades. While she takes no pleasure what has to be done, she has a spectacular amount of blood on her hands, while most of the problems you face in Phantom Liberty are directly or indirectly her fault. Which isn't getting to how she's overseeing AI weapons experiments that - in addition to their hideous human cost - are threatening the existence of humanity in exchange for making sure that the American flag is the last one flying on a dead planet.
• Principles Zealot: If there's one thing even Myers' enemies could agree on, it's that she is unwaveringly committed to her goals, and will go above and beyond to see them through. Compared even to Saburo Arasaka, it's a chilling reminder of how dangerous a powerful person with conviction can be.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • As unfettered as Myers may be, she does have some contingencies in place to help keep things from going out of control, including "Project Cynosure" aka, Militech's version of Soulkiller. Even with her incredibly dangerous gamble with breaching and weaponizing whatever's beyond the Blackwall, she consciously saw to it that countermeasures were put in place meant specifically to destroy AI constructs as part of the "cure"..
  • Shortly after V helps her fight off the BARGHEST and escape the wreckage of Space Force One, Myers quickly deduces that someone on the inside from Washington was responsible for the attack, immediately getting V to remove the tracker device in her neck and utterly refusing to confirm her survival until she was safe back at the capital with the help of an agent of hers she knows she can trust and is uncompromised. Considering that it was her own right hand woman who was responsible for the events of the story, she was right to be extra cautious.
• The Resenter: Despite her own background as Militech's former CEO, President Myers has seething contempt towards corpos and the status quo they represent, in addition to her gripes over America's fall from grace. While she's careful to keep it under control for pragmatic reasons, the mask does slip while with V, notably as they slip through an abandoned expo exhibit.
• Scars Are Forever: In the beginning of the DLC, V assists Myers in removing a tracker in her neck, a procedure that required very carefully cutting her neck open with a jagged piece of glass and pulling it out. Myers has a gash scar on that same spot for the rest of the DLC afterwards.
• Semper Fi: Decades in both the corpo and political sphere have done little to dent Myers' rugged Marine Corps training, allowing her to hold her own when it comes to combat.
• Slave to PR: As willing as Myers is to go above and beyond in order to achieve her plans, she's also consciously aware of how dangerous her gamble truly is. She thus makes a deliberate effort to maintain the PR image of a mundane politician while keeping things like the FIA's covert ops and her breaching of the Blackwall under wraps. This is also coincidentally why Songbird is so valuable to her, in addition to helping in said cover-ups.
  Corpo V: Fake smiles, hollow phrases, pantronizing tone... See why you keep getting reelected.
• Tarot Motifs: The King of Pentacles. Misty mentions that it involves a figure who built a rich and powerful realm through sheer determination; reversed, however, it represents a figure who is stubborn and greedy. With her determination, Myers has lasted three terms as the President of the NUSA, and is working on a long-term plan to restore American greatness. However, that determination and need to restore America's greatness has caused her to commit atrocious acts like forcing Songbird to breach the Blackwall multiple times for her own agenda, and is determined to take her back into custody when she tries to escape during Phantom Liberty.
• The Unfettered: As V spends more time with her, it becomes increasingly clear that Myers is willing to stoop to any low to get her way, including selling out Solomon and his entire team to Arasaka as a "peace offering" and coercing Songbird to illegally (and potentially even fatally) breach the Blackwall to conduct AI research.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Myers at her worst comes across as being willing to do anything if it means securing America's rightful place in the world and the greater good of the NUSA. Even if it means risking whatever lurks beyond the Blackwall through Songbird. Also a line in the Streetkid Lifepath implies that Atlanta is an even worse Wrechted Hive than NC these days, casting into question how good Meyers rule over the NUSA really is.
• We Have Reserves: It's not said, but she definitely has this philosophy. She will sacrifice anything and anyone if it means reaching her goals and she tosses a lot of people into the meat grinder. She doesn't like it, and prefers not having to do so if given the choice, but she can always convince herself that it's necessary.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Comes with the job of being the President of the NUSA, which mandates playing on a global stage and making hard decisions not everyone is going to agree with. Such as forcing Songbird to violate a treaty preventing any government from searching through the Blackwall, allowing the NUSA to gain an edge over enemy nations and corporations. That's a war crime so severe that if word ever got out, Myers would have to resign, or risk an all-out war.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If V kills So Mi even if they side with Reed, Myers will chew them out for doing so rather than bringing her in, and subsequently rescind her offer for a cure.
  • Of course, V can choose to fire right back at her from the beginning, rejecting her scorn and calling her out for having pushed Songbird that far in the first place.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: Downplayed. V can come across President Myers' notes regarding her own speeches, in which she considers some of the stuff edited by her scriptwriters as being too overboard or excessive.

Songbird

Song So Mi "Songbird"

"No such thing as honor in Night City."

Voiced by: Minji Chang (English)

A netrunner prodigy of Korean descent who made a name for herself tackling numerous illicit gigs in her teenage years, Song So Mi caught the attention of the FIA during a particularly daring heist and was shortly thereafter recruited into their ranks. Taking on the alias "Songbird", she was Solomon Reed's protégé and longtime partner until she reluctantly betrayed him for reasons unknown. In 2077, Song rose became the personal right hand of NUSA President Rosalind Myers and offers V an opportunity to finally cure themselves of their Relic-induced affliction in exchange for helping her rescue the President's life.

---

• The Ace: The best netrunner in the NUSA and of her generation. Myers and Reed both describe her as a genuine prodigy when it comes to navigating the Net, a boast that is backed by her ability to directly jack into the Blackwall and draw power from it. That said, it's made abundantly clear Songbird considers life under Myers' thumb a living hell, nevermind what hacking into the Blackwall does to her.
• Action Girl: Downplayed. She mainly relies on her incredibly effective netrunning skills, but she's not afraid to engage in combat through firearms when there's no option.
• Allegorical Character: She represents your principles. As awful of a person as she is and as reprehensible the actions she takes over the course of the story is, she is in the exact same situation V was at first, alone, dying and desperate, and if you sell her out to NUSA the narrative (and Johnny) let you know that you are handing her over to the people who systematically ruined her life, for the sake of getting "to live" and are violating your own stated beliefs by doing so. The narrative presents her handover as you selling off your values and code of honor for selfish ends; the surgery you can receive will save your life, but at the potential cost of everything that really matters. On a larger level, she also represents the kind of person V will become if they sell out their principles like she has — a selfish hypocrite who shows no regard for the Collateral Damage left in their wake — effectively saying If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!. At the same time, though, the game leaves a lot of ambiguity and room for interpretation or roleplaying in this, deliberately muddying the waters of the morality and leaving it largely up to the player whether Songbird really deserves such sympathy and whether V is really "selling out" by opposing her if they do so. It's messy.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Whether she actually intended to kill Rosalind Myers is up in the air. On the one hand, Songbird arranged the shuttle to go into Dogtown and would have handed Myers over to Hansen had the latter not taken matters into his own hands by shooting down the shuttle himself, and in another mission, she conveniently "loses" control of the Chimera mech that promptly goes haywire and tries to kill V and Myers. On the other hand, Songbird initially recruited V to rescue the President from Hansen even before he shot the plane down, makes it clear Hansen never actually followed through on his part of the deal with her, and later revelations about her Netrunning capabilities make it clear that she is susceptible to the influence of rogue A.I.'s behind the Blackwall, and the Chimera going haywire is implied to be one such moment when Songbird was attacked by one of those A.I.'s. Also, if you quit the main quests early in the expansion, Songbird yells at you for failing to protect Myers, furthering the ambiguity.
  • How much of her current behavior is by her own freewill and how much is it due to the A.I. from beyond the Blackwall possessing her? While she is shown to be very desperate and seemingly willing to do anything to take back her freedom, the last level on the branch where you side with Reed also shows her trying her best to protect V from it despite them trying to capture her in order to turn her into the NUSA and trying everything she can to resist the A.I. she's (unwillingly) playing host to — something uncharacteristic with what the player has seen of Songbird up until then.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Slider calls Songbird a "walking megaton bomb" for good reason: While Song's uncanny ability to tap directly into the Blackwall has made her the most powerful netrunner of her generation, it has also come at the cost of her body becoming an unwilling host to the rogue AI the Blackwall keeps at bay. This single fact makes Song a Person of Mass Destruction who will become an active threat to all of humanity if she ever loses control of herself or decides to actively weaponize her condition, which V can witness firsthand if they decide to side with Reed in the "Firestarter" mission.
• Asian and Nerdy: She's an incredibly talented and powerful netrunner, possibly the best one alive in 2077 and she's of Korean descent.
• Big Bad: While it's hard to call her a villain, per se, as her motives are very understandable and she's often regretful of the lengths she goes to, but the end of Phantom Liberty reveals that So Mi is responsible for everything that transpired in the expansion, having been playing both sides in an attempt to secure her own freedom and escape Myers' oppressive thumb.
• Black Magic: The loading screens explicitly call the wild cyberspace beyond the Blackwall "datahell", which means the hostile AIs dwelling there are the equivalent of greater demonic entities. Songbird being able to weaponize these entities essentially makes her a warlock capable of wielding the absolute darkest techno-magic imaginable in this setting. To add to the metaphor, Songbird pretty much always uses her skills in an offensive fashion, to either force something ahead or force her way into something.
• Body Horror: During "You Know My Name" you get to see the back of her body and that it is not covered in synth skin, showing she's a Full-Conversion Cyborg. It's a sign of just how much she's physically given up for the job.
• Boxed Crook: Had Solomon and the FIA not intervened, Songbird would have been arrested by Netwatch for a serious but unspecified crime. It is this leverage that Myers uses to bind Songbird to her service.
• Caged Bird Metaphor: Given her codename and her desire to escape from the NUSA's control.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A rare sympathetic example. It turns out that she literally backstabs everybody in Phantom Liberty, and it serves as her Fatal Flaw. She's so desperate to escape from Myers' grasp she's willing to betray anybody and everybody to achieve that end. Considering the hell she went through in the past and her lack of options, it's hard not to feel for her. Before the game, So Mi betrayed Reed to Arasaka assassins. She also betrays President Myers (for good reason), Hansen (for good reasons), and V multiple times. This is all because she wishes to escape from the NUSA and V is just collateral damage.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Although voiced by Minji Chang, So Mi bears more than a strong resemblance to actress Gemma Chan.
• Complexity Addiction: Part of that aforementioned Fatal Flaw is how her attempts to get out of her predicament and subsequent backstabbing of everyone in her way result in needlessly complicated schemes that only make things worse, for one reason or another.
  Reed: As a Chess Master, she'd be famous for dazzling plays and excruciatingly beautiful defeats.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: She has a direct line to the Blackwall that lets her accomplish netrunning feats that would make even Alt green with envy; doing so, however, takes an immense toll on her body and leaves her open for the rogue AIs on the other side of the Blackwall to jump into. By the end of the expansion, So Mi's condition has deteriorated to the point where you have only three choices: Use the cure she promised you to save her, grant her a Mercy Kill, or hand her over to Myers and suffer a Fate Worse than Death.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Reed gave her a choice between signing up with NUSA and leaving her life behind or being taken by Netwatch. Once she joined NUSA she was put to work going through the Blackwall, which took away her mind layer by layer. Her "friend" Reed who claimed to always have her back just went along with the process, rather than finding ways to pull her out of it. Then when in a mentally and emotionally fragile state the surgeons convinced her to go through the extreme cyberware augmentation that she has today. Rinse and repeat with the Blackwall until things got so horrifically bad that she went to a warlord to get her out of her situation.
• Death of Personality: Her fate if given over to the NUSA. By the time V and Reed find her at the end of "Somewhat Damaged", Songbird's mental state has greatly deteriorated due to prolonged exposure to the Blackwall and being used as a rogue AIs meatsuit for a brief period of time. This, combined with what awaits her under Myers and the NUSA, all but ensures the "So Mi" V and Reed know will effectively be gone and reduced to no more than a mostly chromed-up puppet with no free will of her own.
• Demonic Possession: If V betrays So Mi at Firestarter, she will give in to the rogue AI's influence.
• Determinator: A recurring aspect of her personality. In her past her apparent boyfriend was incredibly worried about her netrunning habit after she had a session which lasted 3 days. When it turns out that she took V for a ride up until the spaceport, Johnny is not angry or betrayed, but instead incredibly impressed at her conviction and reasoning that her motives were sympathetic. Please keep in mind that Johnny is usually disgusted with people who lie. If you side with Reed and face her at the Cynosure facility instead she will use incredible willpower to save V from the rogue A.I.s trying to kill them.
• Didn't Think This Through: Her biggest flaw is not properly planning or taking into account the full possibilities that her actions bring. Her plan to land into Dogtown with Myers went sideways when Kurt a) shot the plane down with a missle and b) sent teams to kill Myers when Songbird’s tone on the action later suggests that she thought he would try to take her alive. Teaming up with Kurt also didn’t leave her a lot of room to achieve her goal of getting her cure and leaving, needing the FIA’s partial help to do so. Finally, Song straight up admits in the homestretch of escaping to the moon that the cure only works once and she’s planning to save it for herself, giving V a perfect reason to turn against her (though this last one is justified in by that point she was exhausted, barely conscious, and seemed to reach a breaking point on how much regret she had in betraying others).
• Distaff Counterpart: Oddly to Adam Smasher. Both are more or less the best operative for their respective factions, but Smasher's fullborg implants are entirely combat-oriented while So Mi's are primarily to help her with her netrunning capabilities. She's also much more attractive than Smasher, who by 2077 looks more machine than man. Furthermore, So Mi is a tragic character who secretly dislikes working for NUSA, while Smasher enjoys killing people for his sheer sadism while serving Arasaka.
• Doom Magnet: Reed tells V that getting involved with So Mi is begging for trouble. He's speaking from experience after she left him for dead on President Myers' orders. Given how V walks into a government conspiracy and plot to kidnap the President, all of which takes place in the colossal shitshow that is Dogtown, he isn't joking. Slider later reveals that Songbird has been using the Blackwall to make contact with V via the Relic, in turn making her a major network security breach, or as he puts it "a walking megaton bomb" waiting to go off, further proving Reed's concerns.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Reed doesn't hold what happened to him seven years ago against her, knowing she was following Myers' orders to secure a "ceasefire" with Arasaka.
  • While V is justifiably angry with Songbird when she reveals she had no intention of using Cynosure to save their life, V can also tell Songbird there was no reason to lie to them as they would have helped her anyway as they technically do have a means to remove the Relic via Mikoshi.
• Electronic Eyes: Her eyes turn into glowing dots surrounded by darkness when she uses Blackwall.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Though a far more sympathetic example than most.
  • The cinematic trailer for Phantom Liberty shows her to be the "Brute" in question; seven years prior, Solomon was leaving Night City with her assistance before she trapped him in a train car with Arasaka soldiers, though it's obvious from her hesitation and nearly shedding a tear that she really didn't want to. She did so under Myers' orders in order to secure a "ceasefire" between them and Arasaka, with Solomon becoming their scapegoat.
  • She does the same thing if V decides to help her escape from Alex and Reed. She tells V at the last minute that her cure for both will actually only work for one person. To be fair to Songbird, though, she wasn't expecting to be so close to death or being pursued by her former colleague and boss.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • While Songbird plays both sides and even sold out the President of the New United States of America to get a shot at a cure for her condition, she makes it clear that while she hates and fears Myers, she doesn't actually want the woman dead. If you fail either of the first two missions of Phantom Liberty where you are tasked with protecting the president, Songbird will chew V out for their failure.
  • While she does lie to V, she doesn't believe or defend their own lies and owns up to the fact that what she did was wrong, whereas Reed and Myers will do something bad and then jump through mental hoops to justify their clear lies.
• Evil Counterpart: Not so much evil as grayer counterpart. While Alt has lost much of her humanity since becoming an AI in all but name for the last fifty years, she still retains more than enough of her personality to be cordial with V because of their association with Johnny while also being upfront and honest. Songbird, on the other hand, lies to everyone and plays both sides to achieve her goals, while gradually becoming more of a hollow shell than Alt ever could. This includes V, who she knows is dying while giving them a Hope Spot by telling V she has a cure for their condition. The cure exists and it does work; she just doesn't tell them it can only be used on one person.
• Exact Words: All her comments about a "cure" for V's condition are carefully and manipulatively worded such that while they're technically true, they omit how it can only be used on one person.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In the cinematic trailer, Songbird's hairstyle changes from a wavy, half-shaved mohawk in 2070 to a sleek, professional bob in 2077, symbolizing how much she's embraced her role as the president's right-hand netrunner. Toward the end of the expansion, it becomes more unkempt and messy to show how vulnerable and tired she is, both from slowly dying and from suffering under Myers.
• Fatal Flaw: She doesn't trust anyone and as result she ends up betraying everybody. She's so desperate to escape from Myers' grasp that she sees no other choice other than to betray anybody and everybody to achieve that end. The NUSA has betrayed her before, so it makes sense that she wouldn't trust them, but she does the same to everyone and anyone around her regardless of whether or not they've done anything to her, and consequently puts herself in a situation where she's attempting to escape NUSA without any allies who could or would even want to help her escape. Moreover, if V sides with Songbird near the end of the DLC her dishonesty about the cure's single-use nature opens the possibility for them to give her up to Reed, rendering all of her actions up to that point moot.
• Fate Worse than Death: This is how she views having to work for Rosalind Myers. One outcome in Phantom Liberty sees a cornered So Mi begging V to kill her, finding death preferable than suffering under Myers any further.
• Foil: To V, as explicitly stated by Narrative Director Igor Sarzyńsk in the Phantom Liberty Trailer Breakdown. Songbird was described as someone who became an intelligence officer but very easily could've become a streetpunk in another life, just as V lives as an edgerunner but has the skills and demeanor that could've made a frighteningly efficient government agent. For bonus points, Songbird resembles Female V in promotional materials and cover art, but has a more professional appearance. Like V, Songbird is also dying due to the influence of outside forces, though while V has to deal with a personality construct that's slowly overtaking their mind and body, Songbird has to deal with rogue A.I.'s from the Blackwall. V's closest people (Vik and Misty) are trying to save them, whereas the people closest to So Mi (Reed and Myers) are getting her killed. Johnny is trying to help save V's life, whereas the Rogue A.I.s are trying to ruin Songbird's. Whereas V's options for a "cure" entail them getting involved with Arasaka (either accepting Hanako's assistance or by assaulting Arasaka Tower with Rogue, the Aldecados, or going at it alone) in order to save their life and see tomorrow, Songbird is willing to go to extreme lengths to save her life and get away from the NUSA.
  • To a lesser degree, to Adam Smasher. Both are full borg dragons to the master of a powerful entity that are practically walking superweapons, and both of those statuses are related to one-another. Both have a history of collateral damage, though Smasher's is rooted in a genuine delight in chaotic destruction and So Mi's comes from a tendency to overestimate her abilities. The biggest differences are that So Mi grapples with the rightness of the NUSA, while Smasher treats Arasaka as a convenient means to an end. And, somewhat ironically, Smasher is far more honest than Songbird, being clear that chaos and destruction are all he cares about, while Songbird lies to and betrays every character she has dealings with, especially V.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When she first hacks into the Relic, it causes immense pain to both V and Johnny, the latter suffering the worst of it since it's his engram on the biochip. This ends up hinting at what Songbird's cure for the Relic will mean for Johnny; unlike in the Devil ending where his engram is removed from V's mind and subsequently erased, Johnny is outright destroyed from the removal process.
  • While trying to guide V to a vantage point in order to anticipate Space Force One's imminent crash, she briefly snaps as a construction lift malfunctions, and comes off surprisingly bitter when griping about not having things working as they should. An early hint not only of Songbird not being sincere with her persona, but also of her existential anxiety about losing control over the situation, let alone her own fate.
  • Scanning the interior of the crashed Space Force One reveals that someone boarded and launched the shuttle's lone escape pod. Given that Myers is encountered shortly afterwards still onboard, and that Myers never mentions anything about ordering So Mi to escape, it's quickly apparent Songbird was willing to abandon all of the crew and passengers to save herself. This is also a hint that the connection between Songbird and NUSA is not entirely positive.
  • Despite being Rosalind's Number Two and is invested in keeping her safe during the expansion, Songbird makes a few scathing remarks here and there, particularly in the expo exhibit. This is the first sign that So Mi actually hates Myers and wants out from under her thumb.
  • She mentions that she used to have a home and was happy until she turned in the warmth of Brooklyn for the cold walls of Washington. Should V take the NUSA surgery option, they will leave NC for Washington and undergo surgery to remove the Relic, though they wind up spending two years in a coma and lose everything in the process, leading to a miserable ending overall.
  • The choir used for her theme, "I'm a netrunner" and its variations, might foreshadow her being infected by Blackwall A.I.s- The voices represents the A.I.s trying to get out. Worth mentioning that they get more prominent and wild the more they gain control over Songbird.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Or rather, a form she's comfortable with. The hologram she uses to communicate with V shows her dressed in a form-fitting netrunning suit with her own unique edgerunner jacket and sneakers worn over it while her current appearance has different, more formal clothes and a more professional haircut. But most importantly, Song's avatar lacks the extensive fullbody augmentations she possesses in real life. Likely because her memories in "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos" heavily imply that all the extra chrome that overtakes her entire back and arms weren't installed with her full consent.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: In a conversation with her, V can dismiss all of her justifications for her actions and point out that, despite her harsh past, she's ultimately still responsible for her own actions.
• Full-Conversion Cyborg: You wouldn't have guessed it from the first time you meet her, but Songbird has extensive cybernetic enhancements and is effectively a fullborg, at least from the waist up. Her back, arms, and back of her head are all open machinery and wires to help with her netrunning.
• Godzilla Threshold: The entire expansion is this for So Mi. She's the one who told Kurt Hansen that Myers was flying near Night City airspace and willingly helped him while setting both sides to duke it out. So Mi makes it very clear that this isn't her first choice, but she's so desperate that this is what she thinks is the best course of action if it means she can escape from Myers.
• He Who Fights Monsters: By the time of Phantom Liberty's events, she is willing to engage in many of the same acts as the people who ruined her life and whom she is trying to get away from.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Back in her old apartment in Brooklyn, she owned a collection of Samurai albums on vinyl, suggesting that she used to be a major Fangirl of their music.
  • While Song does see Solomon as a genuine friend and deeply regrets leaving him to die in Night City seven years ago on Rosalind's orders, a part of her still resented the fact that Sol was the one who recruited her into the FIA, which led to her being trapped as the President's lapdog in the first place.
• Hope Spot: Songbird starts the expansion off by saying she knows that V is dying and she knows how to save their life. V is understandably skeptical, but is desperate enough on the off chance she isn't lying. She isn't; the cure does exist...but it can only be used on one person, and she had no intention of using it on V.
• Hypocrite:
  • If V decides to side with Solomon and attempt to apprehend Song during the Firestarter mission, Song will go absolutely ballistic at V, and call V a "two-faced snake" for their betrayal. But if you did side with her during this mission, you'll inevitably find out that Song had every intention of screwing V over because her proposed solution to their shared conditions will only cure a single person, and that she was simply using V just like she used all the others (Solomon, Myers, Hansen, etc.) for the sake of her own freedom and survival.
  • She yells at Hansen that shooting down Myers' ship caused the deaths of innocent people. Later on, her plan to escape the stadium kills just as many, if not more, civilians when she sets the defenses to all turn hostile at everyone but herself and V. V can even call her out on it and she brushes it off as a necessity for her survival.
  • She bitterly states that Hansen is using her after he shoots down Space Force One, despite the fact that she's using him in her scheme to escape Myers. She also rants that V betrayed her even though they 'were the one person she trusted', when she lied from the start and only told the truth at the last second.
  • She often calls out Reed and Myers for being liars and exhibiting a Never My Fault mentality. Songbird herself shows both of these traits, lying to multiple people including V by telling them they can both be cured for her own gain and deflecting responsibility multiple times when called out on her actions by V.
• Hypocritical Humor: In the early portion of Phantom Liberty, Songbird mentions how she's not a fan of Samurai, even saying they were "done" by their second album. When V sees flashbacks of her life before joining the NUSA, her apartment has several Samurai records and he has a pin of the Chippin' In album art on her jacket, meaning she was lying and was too embarrassed to say she was actually a huge fan while knowing Johnny Silverhand is riding shotgun in V's head, or she got to know what he was really like offstage via the Relic. She might also be aware of Johnny's huge ego and was eagar to push his buttons a bit.
• I Am a Monster:
  • In "The Killing Moon", she gets increasingly distraught over the extremes she has gone to for her freedom, and starts openly ranting to V about how she can't seem to stop hurting everyone around her. If V reassures her, they do so by saying they're in the same boat and in this together, but this proves to be cold comfort to Songbird because of her true intentions that she reveals at the end of the mission. The cure she promised only works once and she planned to keep it all to herself. While V is reeling from this betrayal, Songbird tries to reassure them that they can figure out another way, and that they're much stronger than she could ever be, but it's not hard to see that part of her feels like she deserves to be punished for everything she's done, and she's knowingly or subconsciously giving V an opportunity to do just that.
  • In "Somewhat Damaged", she similarly considers herself an abomination who has done nothing but ruin the lives of everyone around her. While her pleas for a Mercy Kill are in part driven by never wanting to be under the NUSA's thumb again, she's also implied to be genuinely suicidal, as she believes she will only continue to hurt everyone around her if she continues to live.
• I Just Want to Be Free:The impetus that drives every single one of her actions and kicks off the events of Phantom Liberty in the first place. Songbird is determined to do whatever she thinks is necessary to break away from President Myers and the FIA's control. This includes enacting an elaborate Batman Gambit that results in a myriad of collateral deaths, betraying the trust of what little allies she has left, and manipulating V into playing along with the promise of a cure that she fully intends to use for herself.
• It's All About Me: While she has sympathetic motives, she prioritizes herself and her freedom over everyone else. She'll betray anyone if it means getting closer to a cure, lures V to Dogtown with promises of a cure she never intends to give them, and states she feels guilty about her actions but never actually stops them even if V calls her out. She's even willing to turn the Stadium's defenses hostile in order to serve as a distraction for her escape, callously brushing off V's horrified statement about how many people that would kill by saying that they'll die so she and V (really just her) can live. In an ironic turn, her one altruistic choice in her path to tell V that her cure can only be used once can be turned against her. A V that tried to help her escape can turn her over to Reed for the cure.
• Karma Houdini: Depending on how sympathetic one finds her, V letting her go to the moon so she can survive may count. Regardless of her motives, the entire story of Phantom Liberty only happens because of her and her actions lead to the death of numerous innocent people, deliberately or otherwise.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Her plan to escape the stadium involves rendering all the defenses inside hostile, shooting innocents and Barghests alike. V can walk through the bodies of innocent people and comment on how many civilians died because of her.
  • While some of it can be attributed to the influence of the Blackwall AIs and her psyche fracturing thanks to V's betrayal, siding with Reed causes her to sell out V and Alex to Kurt, leading to the latter's death. She then mocks V for thinking they could outwit her and says that Alex died because of them.
• Laser-Guided Karma: All her betrayals and backstabbing, especially what she did to Reed and V, can end with her suffering Death of Personality or death itself, though the latter case is a Mercy Kill since Songbird finds dying a better alternative than going back to Myers.
• Leitmotif: I'm a Netrunner, which plays during the first time she contacts V. Variations play whenever Songbird is on screen, and it changes depending on the player's choices regarding her fate.
• Male Gaze: Similar to Panam, she has a very shapely butt emphasized by her netrunning suit and it gets quite a bit of focus. The Pimped-Out Dress she rocks during the Black Diamond Gala also features a prominent slit that gives a generous look at her bare legs.
• Mission Control: Shares this with Johnny when he's willing to offer V advice on how to go about things, though she's more active and can actively assist V through the Relic.
• Mirror Character:
  • As the story goes on, her current circumstances and issues parallels V's own predicament and problems after Jackie's death: dying, alone, and desperate for any kind of solution, but is willing to take and go through far more extreme actions to save herself. One thing to keep in mind, is that even in the darkest times, V had Viktor and Misty who were hellbent on helping them, whereas So Mi has Reed and Myers who were hellbent on exploiting her, health be damned. She's even playing host to her own brand of "passengers", except hers are leagues worse than Johnny ever was; after all, how can a anarchist rockerboy compare to rogue artificial intelligence?
  • She also has many parallels with Myers herself. Both of them are The Unfettered who will do absolutely anything to achieve their objectives, and have a vested interest in getting V involved in the plot. They also have a chilling capacity for ruthlessness, including starting bloodbaths that get innocent people killed, and screwing over their own allies and hanging them out to dry (with both of them being responsible for betraying Reed 7 years earlier). However, Myers is one of the main power-brokers of the setting by virtue of being the NUSA President, while Songbird is just a netrunner (albeit a very skilled one) trying to escape Myers' grasp. By virtue of being more secure in her position and having more options at her disposal, Myers is also capable of acting honorably from time to time by rewarding the people who work for her and keeping her word, while Songbird spends the entire storyline burning every bridge she has in her desperate quest for freedom. While Johnny and Reed are more sympathetic to Songbird and openly disdainful of Myers thanks to the power imbalance between them, Reed will ultimately side with Myers because of his greater loyalty to the NUSA. And when V has to decide who to side with, they'll need to consider that Songbird can't actually help them be cured (because she never intended to) but Myers can, despite Myers' abuse being responsible for the lengths Songbird has gone to. Another difference is that while Myers is driven by her ethos of restoring the NUSA to its former glory, Songbird just running for her life.
  • Oddly, the character that Songbird is similar to most in the base game is Evelyn Parker. Yes, our beloved Doll is a slave with a long leash and wants to do anything to get out from under it despite having a gilded cage (she's Cloud's highest paying attraction), paralleling the fact that Songbird is similarly well-regarded and well-treated as the NUSA's best Netrunner, but is desperate to get out of her situation, with both being disposable commodities in the end. Both of them also recruit V for an elaborate stunt they hope will free them from their enemies but intend on backstabbing their allies throughout. Both are also sneaky and more cunning than they first appear, but prove to be incredibly poor long-term planners. However, Evelyn never betrays V or Judy, with only the Voodoo Boyz and Dexter De Shawn being on the receiving end of her treachery, and never harms as many innocents as Songbird is willing to.
• My God, What Have I Done?: By the time you reach the shuttle launch area regret has hit her hard, in regards to both betraying Reed and lying to V.
• My Greatest Failure: She never forgave herself for betraying Reed. She also considers her actions in the expansion to be just as unforgivable.
• Never My Fault: For all that she claims to regret the many evil things she does, whenever she is actually committing those acts, she is stone-faced and callous, demonstrating no outward signs of hesitation or regret and even afterwards she brushes off everything as either not her fault or an unfortunate necessity. When she gets a bunch of innocents killed at the stadium, she is completely unsympathetic to them or V's horror at their deaths, declaring they're dying so she can live. Most tellingly, when her actions cause Hansen to savagely murder Alex, she responds to V calling her out for it by coldly saying V is to blame for it for betraying her. Even the situation she's in at the start of the game is at least partially her own fault despite blaming Myers for it all; she only wound up in NUSA custody and hunted by Netwatch because she committed some massive, flagrant crime involving the Blackwall which Reed notes would've gotten her and everyone she cares about killed if she didn't sign up with NUSA.
• Non-Action Girl: Downplayed, as she's not absolutely useless with a gun, which she proves in "Firestarter" if you help her escape. You can still tell that she feels her best when she can hack from distance and isn't in the immediate line of fire. It's presented quite well at the end of the earlier mentioned mission, where V has no issue with dislocating a sewer grate with one kick, then jumping down and landing on two feet, while the best Songbird can manage is sliding down the concrete slope and landing face-first in the mud below.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In "The Killing Moon", Songbird regrettably reveals to V, as they near the shuttle that will take her to Luna, that Cynosure cannot save them both: It Only Works Once and she never intended on using it to save V's life. She admits to feeling horrible about the betrayal. While V can otherwise be understanding about why she lied, it's equally possible for them to be pissed at her for stringing them along right up to the finish line; this can even bite her in the ass as V can hand her over to Reed, who's waiting for them at the shuttle.
• Noodle Incident:
  • It's not known exactly what she did to attract Netwatch's attention, though it is implied that she breached the Blackwall in one of her heists.
  • She's also known to have been involved in either facilitating or covering up certain operations on behalf of President Myers, including covert meetings with Latin American juntas and the deaths of terrorists inspired by the "Bartmoss Collective" at the hands of NUSA commandos.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: A possible view of her. Her past is tragic, her life is hell, and her desire to escape is justified, but she's also selfish, ruthless, and totally uncaring towards how her actions affect others, frequently doing things that kill or hurt numerous innocent people — including people she professes to care about — even when she had better options. In one conversation, V can accuse her of being nothing but a Dirty Coward running from the consequences of her own choices and declare that nothing that happened to her justifies the way she treats others.
• Number Two: President Myers' right hand and close associate. She hates being this, since she is forced to do what Myers wants (at the consequence of her own health), and desperately wants to get away from her control.
• Order Versus Chaos: The Chaos to Reed's order. Songbird wants to be rid of Myers and her government and is willing to go to extremes to do so. She will do anything to get control of her own life.
• The Paranoiac: One of her biggest flaws. Songbird, on some level, views pretty much everyone around her as either a potential threat or a potential tool, even people who truly care about her and that she herself claims to care about, like Reed and V. Myers' abuse has turned Songbird into a deeply paranoid woman who will betray anybody to get what she wants and seems to treat life like a war.
• Pet the Dog:
  • On Reed's endgame path, she actually does try to keep V safe despite having no reason to, even saving their life from the Cerberus drone when it killing V would only help her.
  • If V decides to work with Songbird to get her away from the NUSA, she'll eventually come clean to V that the cure can only be used once. She's heavily worn out and delirious as she does so, and it's ambiguous whether or not she'd have come clean if she was in better shape, but this does establish that her planned betrayal was really wearing on her conscience. Depending on the V's choice, So Mi could lose her chance to escape because of this.
  • If V decides to follow through on getting Song to Luna in spite of her betrayal and waits for a few days to pass, she'll contact V with a text message telling them to go to a dead drop she left behind for them. There V will find a novelty pin from the lunar city of Tycho...along with the Quantum Tuner, an iconic piece of frontal cortex cyberware that instantly resets the cooldown periods of V's other cyberware.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Solomon Reed. Sol was the one who recruited Song into the FIA as a lifeline after the latter earned the ire of NetWatch during a gig gone wrong and the two have essentially been inseperable ever since. This becomes a Deconstructed Trope as the plot of Phantom Liberty progresses, where its shown that while Song and Sol deeply care about one another, their shared occupations as FIA operatives has put a severe strain on their relationship, with Song's desire to finally be free from the President's grasp and Sol's unflincing alliegence to the NUSA and its ideals ultimately creating a irreparable rift between the two that their mutual bond just cannot overcome.
• Playing Both Sides: Towards the end, its revealed that Songbird is actually behind orchestrating the whole crisis up to and including V's involvement in the events of Phantom Liberty. So Mi wanted to escape her Glided Cage of service to Myers and the FIA. She sides with Kurt Hansen to abduct Myers (an act of treason) in hopes of finding both a way out, and a cure for her hidden condition. But she also promises V a cure so V sabotages Kurt's plans, to ensure that Songbird's betrayal doesn't have any lasting consequences towards Myers or the NUSA as she secures her freedom. Even though the carrot "cure" she dangled in front of V will only work on one of them.
• Recruiting the Criminal: She used to participate in different dangerous stunts as a teenage netrunner, and caught the eye of NUSA after a particularly daring heist. Songbird does the same herself with V, an Edgerunner wanted by Arasaka after being wrongly accused of murdering Saburo Arasaka and asks for their help in rescuing President Myers.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Song's Electronic Eyes will glow red with dark energy every time she taps into the Blackwall. On Reed's route, it’s also a significant indicator that the AI inhabiting her body has finally taken the steering wheel...
• Riddle for the Ages: Songbird doesn't explain how or where she learned of V's existence, much less how she came to learn about the Relic or Johnny's personality construct being on the biochip (a fact that is only known to Arasaka and Yorinobu). Given how the Phantom Liberty expansion only opens up after V meets with the Voodoo Boys and makes contact with Alt Cunningham, it's implied but never stated that Songbird may have seen V at the Blackwall and overheard their conversation with Brigitte.
• Secretly Dying: Due to the effects of Rogue A.I.s from the Blackwall messing with her mind, she is dying. With the exception of Reed, no one, not even Myers, knew what was happening, and even then, Reed only knew she was slowly losing her memories. The only way she can survive is by using the cure she promised V.
• Shadow Archetype: To fellow netrunners Lucy Kushinada and Alt Cunningham.
  • Like Lucy with Arasaka, So Mi is a talented netrunner and was recruited at a young age by the NUSA for her talents. So Mi, however, is what Lucy would have been if she remained in Arasaka's clutches and made to do their bidding. Years of working under Myers and researching A.I. and the Blackwall have taken such an immense toll on her that she's dreams to escape. Like Lucy at the end of Edgerunners, she wishes to escape to the moon, and she can achieve this depending on V's actions. Another thing they have in common when it comes to dealing with the people who can help them, is that they keep vital information to themselves. Lucy did not disclose that she was going after Arasaka netrunners, which is one of the things that lead to David Martinez's ruin, whereas So Mi doesn't tell V about her cure only working on one person until after Myers is gunning for them both. However, Lucy comes to find a family with Maine's crew, and her love for David drives her to do anything to keep him safe after Edgerunners' Time Skip. Songbird, on the other hand, will do anything to get the hell out of Myers' grasp, including betraying anyone and everyone she considers a friend or an ally, stooping to lows Lucy would never consider.
  • Like Alt, So Mi is seen as the most talented netrunner of her generation; a V with high intelligence can even compare her to the likes of Bartmoss and his protege Spider Murphy. Just like Alt, So Mi even helped create an AI program that captures and rips apart the minds of any netrunners unlucky enough to be caught in its grasp. Worse still, it's explicitly stated to be a modified version of Alt's "magnum opus" Soulkiller. Both women are also willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve their objectives, though So Mi doesn't have any lingering personal connections that would otherwise convince her to be more upfront and trustworthy, lying to everyone if it means she can be free. Note that while Alt has lost much of her humanity since fleeing into the net, she's still cordial and willing to help V because of their association with Johnny. Whereas So Mi progressively becomes more of a hollow shell in a way that makes even Alt seem human by comparison.
• Simple, yet Opulent: The green dress she wears for Hansen's party in "You Know My Name" has a Sexy Leg Slit and furry arm accessories that look like a shawl thrown through her arms behind her back. It lacks any fancy accessories seen in styles like neokitsh, but it still makes her stand out among other, equally fancy, guests.
• Split Personality: Her psyche starts outright fracturing should V side with Reed in "Firestarter", where she catches on to V's true intentions, then sells out V and Alex out to Kurt and mocks them for thinking they could pull one over on her, then acts genuinely shocked and distraught once the Icebreaker kicks in, then spitefully blames V for Alex's death and says they got what they deserved for betraying her. This goes even further when V chases her down in the Cynosure facility, where she'll step in to protect V from the defenses she's implied to have rigged against them. It's strongly implied that the influence of the Blackwall AI, combined with her own desperation to escape, has created a rift between the part of her that will do anything for her freedom, and the part of her that's distraught at constantly hurting those she cares about.
• Tarot Motifs: The King of Cups which deals with compassion, diplomacy, but reversed deals with manipulation and can put her own feelings and needs over others. Songbird says she can help both of you, while she really can only help one and manipulates V to get her to the moon, but it's a sympathetic example as she is basically in an impossible situation.
• Techno Wizard: As a Netrunner, this is a given. That said, So Mi is one of the best netrunners of her generation given how easily she's able to hack into the Relic and make it less oppressive on V's body (and unlocking a new skill tree in the process). If their Intelligence is high enough, V compares them to the likes of Rache Bartmoss and Spider Murphy, the former being the infamous netrunner who caused the DataKrash and the latter being Bartmoss' apprentice. It wouldn't be remiss to compare her to Alt Cunningham, either, given her extensive research into AI and the Blackwall at the NUSA's behest.
• Teen Genius: Got the attention of the FIA as a highly-skilled netrunner when she was only a teenager, and was talented enough to be employed by President Myers despite being a criminal. The first mission of the expansion reveals her to be the one who gives V access to a new skill tree by hacking directly into the Relic; a feat not even the Voodoo Boyz were capable of.^note In the associated mission, Maman Brigitte only targets the engram inside the Relic, and even then, she only hacks off a sliver of it to access specific memories in order to catch Alt Cunningham's attention.This means that Myers will do anything to keep Songbird under her thumb, as her skills are just too valuable to her administration. As a result Songbird ends up doing work that is literally killing her. A V with high enough Intelligence will even claim that her deeds put her on the level of Rache Bartmoss and Spider Murphy and the only reason she hasn't earned their level of infamy is that she's actively trying to avoid that level of attention.
• Too Clever by Half: While Songbird is exceptionally intelligent, skilled and dangerous, it's shown that she's bitten off way more than she could chew, and is horribly poor at long-term planning.
• Tragic Villain: As sympathetic and tragic as her situation is and as understandable as her desire to escape Myers' grip, she's also selfish, callous, ruthless, and uncaring person who will betray or murder anybody in the name of earning her freedom and is arguably the real Big Bad of the expansion. How much of this can be attributed to her hard life and whether that is enough to justify her actions is left to the player to decide.
• Uncertain Doom: While V can give her a Mercy Kill, her fate if she escapes to the moon or is handed over to Myers is unclear; in both cases, Songbird is in poor condition because of repeated intrusions into the Blackwall and her mind is in total shambles to the point of neurological collapse. In the former ending, V uses the neural matrix to save her life, but given how it affects V in "The Tower" and that So Mi is playing host to an AI and not an engram like Johnny, it's not made clear if she survives. If you give her to Myers there's no mention of her afterward; if V asks Reed about her, he answers that he hasn't been allowed to see her since Dogtown. That said, "From Her to Eternity" heavily implies that Songbird is alive after all. After helping Songbird escape to the Moon, V receives a mysterious message from an unknown number that leads them to a hidden container holding a pin from Tycho City on Luna. V can ask if the caller is So Mi, but receives no answer, leaving her final fate ambiguous.
• Undying Loyalty: She's President Myers' Number Two and even starts the expansion off by asking V to help rescue her. The Cinematic Trailer even shows her in the same shuttle as Myers, implying the two are close. In reality, Songbird hates working for Myers and is actually terrified of her. It's to the point where Songbird begs V to kill her, viewing working under Myers as a Fate Worse than Death. Considering that Myers forces her to constantly go into the Blackwall and it's pushing her closer and closer to death, it's not hard to see why.
• Unequal Rites: She is probably the best netrunner of her time, but what makes her special essentially comes from technological demonic entities, unlike say, Alt who was described as an immensely talent genius. She is the warlock to Alt's sorcerer.
• They Died Because of You: In the Reed path of Firestarter, right as V realizes that Alex has died, Songbird will rub it in by blaming them for it.
• The Unfettered: A lot of the sympathy she gets for her genuinely horrific situation and past is lost by her willingness to kill, abuse, betray, manipulate, and generally mistreat everyone around her for the sake of securing her own life and freedom. For as understandable as her desire to escape is, she resorts unhesitatingly to the same methods as the people who hurt her to begin with and has no apparent moral code beyond looking out for herself.
• Unreliable Expositor: She's one of the main sources of information about the events driving Phantom Liberty. Unfortunately, as the tropes above show, she is far from unbiased about her situation, has severe mental issues — including memory loss — from her experiences with the Blackwall, is carrying around at least a few Blackwall A.I.s in her head that affect her actions more and more as the story develops, and has a tendency to deny blame for any wrongdoing she commits or lie to get sympathy and assistance, which all raises a lot of questions about how reliable the things she tells and shows V are. This is particularly problematic with characters like Myers and Reed, whose nastier qualities are almost entirely related to the player through Songbird's extremely biased memories and claims.
• Walking Spoiler: Songbird might be the first character we meet in the expansion, but her real situation is given to us gradually, and no aspect of it is as it appeares to us at first.
• Walking Techbane: As V says early on, Songbird hacks rough and the tech in Dogtown doesn't like that. Stuff she forces open tends to break down in the process. It's a microcosm of the kind of person she is, destructive just by existing. And in the Reed path, where Songbird becomes a monster, pretty much every form of electronics explodes as she passes.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Solomon Reed. Seven years ago, they were as thick as thieves. Emphasis on were; her betrayal and leaving him for dead on the orders of Myers, who intended to use Reed as a scapegoat to prevent a war has left a noticeable strain on their friendship. It's the point that Reed warns V not to get too involved with her. For what it's worth, Songbird herself regrets betraying him and still hasn't forgiven herself.
• Wham Line: Should V side with Reed in Firestarter, they'll learn the hard way that they've dearly underestimated So Mi and the lengths she's willing to go to.
  Songbird: Kurt, we have a problem...no, I can handle the one down here. (to V) Really expected this to work?
• Worf Had the Flu: As a netrunner and FIA agent, Songbird is pretty much unstoppable, doubly so in the "Betray Songbird" route, where she fries everyone she touches. Maxtac is able to bring her in because she wore herself out mid-rampage and was barely able to walk when they cuffed her. (Though their beyond-military ICE probably helped too.)
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Done by her and to her depending on your decisions throughout the final stretch of Phantom Liberty.
  • Songbird offers V the means to cure V and safely remove the Relic without the need to seek out Mikoshi or assist Arasaka. While she isn't lying that the cure can save their life, she neglects to tell them that her cure will only work for one person and that she had no intention of using it on V.
  • The entirety of Phantom Liberty is an attempt to escape Myers' grasp and rid herself of the Blackwall's corruption and whatever rogue AI that managed to sink its claws into her. In "The Killing Moon", however, she inadvertently ruins her chances of succeeding when she's at the finish line when she regretfully tells V the cure will only work for one of them and had no intention of saving V's life. This revelation shocks and infuriates V to the point they can betray her and hand her over to Reed. Similarly, her plans fall apart if V sides with Reed in "Firestarter" and the rogue AI's influence grows to the point where her condition becomes critical, leading V to decide whether to give her a Mercy Kill or give her to Myers, which is guaranteed to be a Fate Worse than Death.

Federal Intelligence Agency

In General

Founded in 2006 as an underfunded replacement for the NSA and CIA, the Federal Intelligence Agency has since evolved beyond its original purpose to become the American government's secret army. Granted extensive powers and privileges, as well as the full support of President Rosalind Myers, its agents now conduct intelligence operations around the world, loyally and discreetly perusing the NUSA's political objectives.

---

• Became Their Own Antithesis: The FIA was deliberately founded (and underfunded) to be less powerful and influential than the agencies it replaced, to ensure it couldn't attempt a coup like they did. But by 2077, its always-increasing scope, means and reach have made it much more powerful than the CIA and NSA combined ever were.
• Bread and Circuses: The FIA offers its agents and informants generous rewards for doing their jobs well, be it a cushy desk job in Langley or government positions with a considerable salary. Potentially, through Reed, V can also get one such offer after recovering from their coma.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: To V's surprise, the FIA also has a habit of maintaining analogue contingencies for transmitting classified intel and activating sleeper agents. Justified in that ancient telephone lines and century-old codebooks are much easier to keep discreet from prying eyes than using a secure Net channel.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Federal Intelligence Agency has evolved dramatically over the decades. Transforming from an underfunded vestigial remnant of America's old secret services, to becoming one of the most insidiously powerful organizations within the NUSA.
• Full-Circle Revolution: Originally established to replace the NSA and CIA following their attempted coup of the federal government, the FIA has ironically become just as powerful, if not even more so, than those agencies ever were. This is further reinforced by how the agency has apparently inherited the CIA's old HQ in Langley, Virginia. The only main difference is that they're undoubtedly loyal to the federal government (and President Myers especially) this time around.
• Government Agency of Fiction: The FIA is a direct successor of the NSA and CIA, and appears largely independent of Militech control.
• Interservice Rivalry: With Militech's own covert operatives. Skeptics in the NUSA believe that the FIA is also being used by Myers as a secret weapon in her political games against her enemies within the MegaCorp. The reality? Only the "spooks" know.
• Manchurian Agent: Among the FIA's network of secret informants are sleeper agents strategically inserted into various areas. While they're activated by certain code words or numbers, until then they keep a low profile, looking and acting just like everyone else.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: As much as the FIA comes across as a throwback to another time, it's a highly sophisticated and insidious organization that can give even the best corporate sleuths a run for their money.
• Open Secret: The FIA's existence and activities, particularly during the Unification Wars, are an open secret to everyone. It nonetheless maintains enough Plausible Deniability that any potential problems are swept under the rug.
• Outdated Outfit: Many FIA personnel, at least the ones not undercover or in combat gear, are shown wearing suits, shades and law enforcement getups that wouldn't be out of place in The '80s. Rather appropriate for an institution that, superficially, is seen as an outdated relic.
• Pet the Dog: The FIA does somewhat care for the well-being of its best agents, given that in the Tower ending, Reed is Kicked Upstairs arguably for his own good rather than become a potentially suicidal liability on the field. This also extends to their promise to cure V, as unlike Arasaka and Songbird, they actually follow through with it.
• The Spook: The FIA is the NUSA's go-to for both espionage and general wetwork.
• State Sec: What the FIA has become, in practice. In addition to having enough resources to support a sizable network of operatives and personnel from its HQ in Langley, Virginia, it has enough left to support veritable army of secret informants and the state-of-the-art technology needed to equip them all with.
• Super Prototype: Owing to the nature of its operatives' wetwork, the FIA has access to some of the most sophisticated and experimental tech the NUSA could muster, much of which is still too highly classified to let out into the market.

Solomon Reed

Solomon Reed

"Peace comes at a price. Someone's always gotta pay."

Voiced by: Idris Elba (English), Mirosław Baka (Polish)

A veteran FIA sleeper agent specializing in infiltration and information extraction, Solomon Reed was one of the NUSA's top operatives who had proven himself over the course of countless high-stakes missions. In 2070, during the end the Unification War, Reed and his partner/protégé Songbird were tasked with dismantling all FIA operations within Night City after plans to assassinate an Admiral of the Arasaka Corporation was called off by President Myers. But upon the completion of their mission, Songbird betrayed Reed, locking him inside of a passenger train filled with Arasaka troops after his head. By unknown means, Reed miraculously survived his assassination attempt and in 2077 works with V on their latest mission within the Dogtown Combat Zone.

---

• Actor Allusion: A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the Cinematic Trailer for Phantom Liberty shows a digital sign over Reed's head displaying "DJ: +0.07%". This is both a reference to Idris Elba's past as a nightclub DJ and a reference to the James Bond Film Franchise, in which Elba has been in talks to potentially be the next actor to become the titular British spy after Daniel Craig.
• Alas, Poor Villain: In the "Save Songbird" route, where V is forced to kill him to ensure Songbird escapes, its clear that it is a painful choice for V to do in the heat of the moment and even Johnny — who's usually a Deadpan Snarker who even mocked Evelyn's death (albeit, he was quick to recognize he went too far almost immediately after) — has nothing but pity for Reed after he expires, seeing that Reed's situation is not too different to the kind of fate Johnny himself would have been stuck in had he stayed with the NUSA.
• The Alcoholic: Potentially, given how quickly he makes his way to the bar during the party in "You Know My Name" after he figures out that Songbird was responsible for the crash of Myers' aircraft.
• Ambiguous Situation: He claims that he was making preparations to get So Mi away from Myers until his plan blew up in Firestarter, but we don't see any evidence of him actually doing this. It's left ambiguous if he was really intent on getting her away from NUSA or whether he was just playing V to get So Mi to Myers. If you accuse him of lying about his motives when he first lays out his plan, he'll lose his cool in a rare Out of Character moment, indicating that he's either upset at V seeing right through him, or frustrated that V would think so little of him. While he has a tendency to prioritize his country over everything else, and has made empty promises to So Mi in the past, Johnny does believe he's being broadly truthful, though is uncertain about the "nitty-gritties".
• Badass Longcoat: Sports a long black and red leather overcoat that can change length and color.
• Baritone of Strength: Comes par for the course when you're voiced by Idris Elba.
• Being Evil Sucks: He's constantly made to sacrifice his ethical values in the name of the NUSA's supposed greater good and it's obvious that he's being destroyed emotionally and mentally by it, with Johnny observing that he's being driven to madness by the conflict between the good his superiors insist he's doing and the evils and Realpolitik that he actually sees and is party to.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Oh where to begin. He tells So Mi when she first joins NUSA, that he will always have her back, while seeing how the Blackwall runs are taking away her mind and just letting it continue. He tells himself and V that So Mi is best off being in NUSA's hands, while knowing full well what they will force her to do and that it will take away the last shreds of her mind. He will blame V for the op going bad if V euthanizes So Mi, while conveniently leaving out that he refused to listen to So Mi's wishes. Lastly, he will call himself a patriot, loyal to his country, while Myers will have him do things that constantly violate his oath.
• Bookends:
  • Songbird puts Reed in a situation where he gets gunned down in the cinematic trailer serving as the introduction to Phanton Liberty. If V supports Songbird all the way through, Reed is put in a situation where he gets gunned down, again.
  • In the route where you Mercy Kill Songbird instead, your final meeting with Solomon later mirrors your first encounter at a small court ball game... but instead of coming off as a cool and collected spy who controls the entire conversation with V, Solomon is now a completely broken man who has realized everything he believed was for naught and after having time to think, realizes he nearly condemned Songbird to a Fate Worse than Death and is uncertain with what direction to take now in his life.
• Condescending Compassion: Downplayed. He genuinely cares about Songbird, viewing her as part of his team and therefore his responsibility. This also means he thinks he knows what's best for her; while Myers did order her capture, Reed genuinely thinks Songbird would be better off with the NUSA and considers her plan of escaping to the moon half-baked at best. He says that she wants, above all else, to survive. This is untrue, she would prefer death over working for NUSA again. The Tower ending, meanwhile, has Reed similarly genuine in thinking that V would be better off with a desk job in Langley, despite such a position likely making them indebted to the NUSA and Militech.
• Control Freak: He says that he feels the best when he's in control and it causes him great distress when he feels that he's losing grip on his ops or subordinates, like when Songbird gets corrupted by the Blackwall and taken by MAX-TAC. Additionally, while he is A Father to His Men, he believes he knows what's best for them. This is what serves as the main point of contention between him and Songbird; while he's genuinely pissed she betrayed the NUSA out of desperation, he does want what's best for her, or rather what he thinks is best, nevermind how Songbird herself feels.
• Deal with the Devil: Downplayed in the Tower ending. His idea of helping V out after getting back in touch amounts to offering them a desk job at Langley. While this would invariably tie them to the NUSA and Militech, potentially for life, it's not like they have much of a choice now that they're a nobody and there are worse fates then a mildly tedious office job.
• Death Seeker: Heavily implied. The more time you get to spend with him, the more it seems like he's done with it all. The deeper you get into the Songbird situation, the more his inner conflict and exhaustion of all the years of deception and losing people seems to wear on him. It seems that the only thing keeping him going is his devotion to his mission. That said, Johnny makes it very clear that if Reed keeps going on as he is now, he'll likely kill himself before long.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of James Bond, particularly the "stale beer" way Ian Fleming wrote him. Reed describes himself as a patriot and is unwaveringly loyal to his country (while also making it clear he's loyal to his country, not its leadership). His career and missions, however, take their toll on him as he's constantly forced to sacrifice his ideals and principles to see things through to the end. In all endings barring "King of Wands," it's implied by Johnny that the stress of the job will grow too much for Reed to handle and he will eventually commit suicide.
• Defector from Decadence: When he first explains his plan to Capture Songbird to V, he says that he's willing to betray Myers in order to keep So Mi safe, and only wants her captured so he can personally interrogate her and find "common ground". However, thanks to interference from either V (if they side with Songbird) or Kurt and Songbird herself (if V sides with Reed) his original plan falls to pieces and he quickly runs back to the NUSA for the remainder of the story.
• Defiant to the End: Downplayed — if shot anywhere else except the head in the final showdown in the "Save Songbird" route, Reed still attempts to ready himself to take a shot at V, but ultimately can't bring himself to do it as he staggers about and dying not too long after.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Deconstructed pretty brutally. Reed will jump to this uncomfortably easily. Rather than using this trope as the end point of reflecting on his choices, he uses it as an excuse to avoid reflecting on his choices, as he wouldn't be able to function if he ever came to the conclusion that everything he did for his country was wrong. As he states early on and then again at the end if V handed So Mi over to FIA but expresses doubts about their choices, he isn't allowed to make mistakes in his line of business. By the end, it's clear that this is less a statement of the stakes of his career and more a desperate coping mechanism.
• Driven to Suicide: Johnny realizes very quickly that Reed's loyalty to the NUSA is destroying him as his job constantly demands that he put the mission firest and foremost over personal feelings. He tells V that if Reed keeps going like this, he might "hang himself" before long.
• Early-Bird Cameo: You can actually see Solomon working as a nameless bouncer in Dino's club before the start of Phantom Liberty. After which, he disappears until his mission.
• Electronic Eyes: His eyes glow when he checks V's credentials when he first meets them.
• Et Tu, Brute?:
  • The Cinematic Trailer for Phantom Liberty reveals that seven years prior to the events of the game, Songbird betrayed Reed as he was leaving Night City, locking him in a train car with a group of heavily armed Arasaka Soldiers. Reed quickly figures out she locked him in and is understandably equal parts angry and saddened. In the game proper, while he is bitter, he still trusts Songbird enough to watch his back. It helps that he knows she didn't have a choice, since it was Myers who used him as a scapegoat to secure a "ceasefire" with Arasaka.
  • He also takes V's betrayal badly in the "Save Songbird" route, seeing them as a complete "disappointment" for going against not just the greater good but also putting Song's life in danger to fulfill her agenda. That said, despite it, he clearly still has a measure of care for V to hopefully convince them to turn around and do the right thing, and when push comes to shove, Reed will end up hesitating to pull the trigger in their final showdown. It's unknown if this is due to his feelings towards V or him simply being done with it all.
• Fair-Weather Friend: Reed considers himself So Mi's friend, and the latter reciprocates the gesture. Even when So Mi was forced to leave him for dead at Myers' orders to secure a "ceasefire" with Arasaka, he still trusts her. That being said, Reed's Undying Loyalty to the NUSA trumps their friendship; when he learns So Mi was responsible for Myers' kidnapping, he doesn't hesitate to go after her. Learning So Mi's backstory also raises questions about how much Reed truly cared for her on the emotional level. At the least, he turned a blind eye to her obviously fragile state due to the stress and damage inflicted on herself each time she investigated the Blackwall, or allowed himself to be bullied by his superiors into doing so. The one time he does express concern and maybe even regret for what's become of her, it's too little, too late as it's all but guaranteed the So Mi he knew is all but gone. This is also Dramatic Irony given So Mi betrayed him earlier.
• Fatal Flaw: There's two.
  • His loyalty to the NUSA and unwillingness to abandon the mission. In a prior op that went south, Reed decided to dig his heels in and double down, which ultimately cost the lives of even more of his men. In Phantom Liberty, he's made aware of how Songbird's condition has deteriorated and wants to get her help, in turn following Myers' orders to capture her under the belief the NUSA will give Songbird treatment. This is despite knowing the ramifications of what Songbird's repeated intrusions into the Blackwall has caused and how said intrusions were done on Myers' orders. His commitment to completing the mission will also put him at odds with V if they choose to side with Songbird and help her get to the Moon. This is even lampshaded by Johnny at the end of the expansion, noting how Reed's flaw is actively destroying him since his missions continuously force him to abandon his ideals.
  • His utter lack of self-awareness. He claims that his job does not allow for mistakes, but he makes them all the time, at the expense of others. He claims that he is focused on getting his people home safe and sound, but when push comes to shove he constantly sacrifices others, as Alex will point out more than once. He claims that he just wants to help So Mi out and that bringing her home is her best shot, but flashbacks show that NUSA was forcing her to continuously go into the Blackwall and that it was killing her. Reed knew about this and did nothing to stop them from doing this to So Mi. In other words he wants to bring her back to her killers, hoping they will save her. If V sides with So Mi at Firestarter, Reed will call him out for being immature and shortsighted and that this got Jackie killed. Reed's decisions get the people who work with him killed all the time. He'll feel sorry about all of this, but only after it's far too late. While claiming to hold steadfast onto his principles, he will also jump to I Did What I Had to Do frighteningly fast and frequently. He will call out Songbird's actions as reckless ones that will get innocent people killed, but he was the person who gave orders to the black ops units at the Spaceport. The same units that murdered countless innocent people. He describes Songbird as such: "As a Chess Master, she'd be famous for dazzling plays and excruciatingly beautiful defeats." The exact same thing could apply to Reed. His missions start off well enough and then something idiotic happens causing unnecessary damage that somebody like V has to clean up, lest they lead to defeat.
• A Father to His Men: The Ten of Swords prequel comic establishes Reed as not only The Spymaster of the FIA's covert ops in Night City, but one who genuinely cared for the well-being of his fellow sleeper agents and refused to pull out of the city until every last one of his comrades were safely evacuated. He even went as far as to give up his own seat on an extraction vehicle just so that a younger FIA operative he had rescued could make it out of Night City in his place. Reed also most notably had a very close relationship with Songbird prior to her betrayal. As you progress through the expansion, he later expands this view to V, who has proven themselves surprisingly competent to the point of extending a job for them over at Langley and is perhaps the most ardent about curing V's condition other than Johnny. Unfortunately, he will put the interests of NUSA (read:Myers) over the wellbeing of anybody else.
• The Fettered: A brutal deconstruction. Phantom Liberty showcases what would happen if a man of firm principles were forced to compromise one principle to save the other, over and over again. By the time the end credits roll it's obvious he is not happy with himself and the decisions he made during Phantom Liberty. This is even called to attention by Johnny after the events of the expansion in the routes where he lives, even saying that he'll eventually "hang himself" having to deal with constantly destroying himself for much longer.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With V. Given his occupation and the hazards that come with it, nevermind however many times the NUSA has screwed him over, as well as Songbird's betrayal back in 2070, it takes a while for Reed to warm up and trust V, more so because V is a mercenary and not an official agent. As you progress through the expansion, Reed comes to trust and befriend V, especially when he learns their about their circumstances. Of course, this makes your potential confrontation with him on Songbird's story path all the more painful as Reed tries to convince V to stand down.
• Foil:
  • Johnny mentions that Reed is basically who he would have been had he stayed in the service rather than go AWOL, due them both being idealists who have a tendency to drag others to ruin. To add to that they both cause disaster for the best netrunners of their time. Whereas Johnny is responsible for Alt's death, Reed's actions lead So Mi to ruin. Both because each man refuses to compromise and see that their visions are wrong. There is one other vast difference between the two. Johnny believes in Living Is More than Surviving, whereas Reed believes in keeping his family alive no matter the cost. In Reed, this manifests in a willingness to put trust in organizations that have repeatedly burned him before, while Johnny is willing to attempt crazy and risky stunts to 'help' others before he'd ever consider dealing with a corp. In the debrief, Johnny admits that his belief caused him to fear life and run away from reality, while Reed's insistence on getting So Mi help from a government that he knows has used people before ended up with them (surprise) using her.
  • To So Mi. Both try their hardest to control everything the future could possibly throw at them, and don't recognize that life is not that simple. As a result, they don't take any sort of setbacks well. Ultimately, their fervent desire to control everything and everyone to achieve the best outcome possible is part of the tragedy of the DLC, leading to more pain and misery being visited upon everyone involved.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: He is a superspy who can oneshot somebody with ease and he uses weapons that are associated with the cool stat, namely pistols and sniper rifles. He also packs subdermal armor and uses a tech pistol, both of which are associated with the technical ability stat. As he himself says, being associated with NUSA gets you cutting-edge tech.
• Hero of Another Story: Given Reed's line of work, he's clearly seen more than his fair share of adventures in the name of his country. Some of which only being touched upon in his conversations with V, though sidestories expand on them with more detail.
• Hidden Depths: If you'll linger in The Moth after the first meeting with Alex, she will ask Reed if he's still interested in basketball, and he will respond that he is, but due to his circumstances he's only following minor leagues. He will also reveal that he was in a relationship during these seven years, but it wasn't meant to be.
• History Repeats: In 2070, Reed was gunned down by Arasaka soldiers after being betrayed by So Mi on Myers' orders. In "The Killing Moon", Reed's put in a similar situation where he's gunned down by a (potentially) former Arasaka agent in a situation involving So Mi, only this time he doesn't survive.
• Honor Before Reason: Of the patriotic variety. Solomon feels responsible for those under his command and will go to hell and back to ensure their safety, but personal feelings are a secondary concern; the mission must always come first. This comes to the forefront regarding Songbird; while he's horrified and worried for her when he learns she's Secretly Dying and wants to help her, he ultimately chooses to follow Myers' orders to bring her back to the NUSA (though he does believe that the NUSA might be able to help her).
• Hypocrisy Nod: In a conversation with V, Reed tells them of an old op in the past where a mission went sideways and cost him the lives of his men, something he made worse by doubling down instead of pulling out. Reed makes it clear he didn't want his comrades to die and blames himself; a brutal reminder of how he continuously sacrifices one principle for another even though doing so is mentally destroying him.
• Hypocrite: Should V side with Songbird at Firestarter, Reed will angrily call up V and call them out for his reckless, immature decisions which (among other things) cost him Jackie. Reed himself has gotten countless people who worked with him killed, as Alex is very willing to remind you. He even acknowledges this himself when he talks about an old Night City op where many of his people were killed and he still decided to double down and continue the op.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • Throughout his long career with the NUSA, he's been forced to do many things up to and including sacrificing his ideals for the greater good, though it's obvious to Johnny and V this mindset is actually destroying Reed, with the former noting how he will likely be Driven to Suicide before long. In his story path where Songbird is handed over to Myers and suffer Death of Personality, it's obvious that Reed, for once, cannot use this excuse for what he did to his former partner and friend.
  • While Myers was the one who authorized black ops squads to be used at the Spaceport, Reed was the one who actually commanded them and gave them their orders. In other words, he was the one who authorized them to kill as many people at that port if it meant getting So Mi.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Like Johnny Silverhand before him, Reed's appearance is identical to his English VA Idris Elba.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Solomon is a self-loathing Knight in Sour Armor who is inflexibly loyal to his nation at the detriment of his own principles, he is still a veteran wetwork operative who is objectively correct in many of his assessments.
  • Solomon quickly pieces together the truth that Songbird was (inadvertently) responsible for Space Force One getting shot out of the sky as part of a desperate ploy to get something she needs from Hansen that will cure her condition. He correctly points out that Song must be flying by the seat of her pants to consider something so reckless, and uses that as justification as to why she needs to be brought in at all costs to receive treatment from actual professionals before she escalates the crisis even further. This belief only intensifies after the revelation that Song is playing host to a rogue AI from beyond the Blackwall, which would both severely undercut her better judgement and make her a borderline Apocalypse Maiden, as Slider can attest to.
  • If V chooses to take umbrage with Solomon and Alex murdering the Cassel Twins in cold blood as part of a Kill and Replace, Solomon will call out V on their naivety by asking what they honestly thought would happen, as keeping the twins alive and restrained is too much of a risk to their mission since the two could cut themselves free while the team is all away and/or alert Hansen with their netrunning skills, blowing their cover. Solomon also shuts down the idea that the Twins were innocents by pointing out how they're both career criminals who stepped on plenty of good people to get where they are now.
  • When recruiting Songbird back in New York, Solomon lays out the grim reality that whatever Noodle Incident of a gig she did at the time pissed off NetWatch to the point where they will inevitably hunt her down, along with all of her friends and anybody else involved with helping her. Joining up with the FIA, regardless of whether she wants to admit it or not, really was the only option a street kid like her could take for the sake of keeping everyone she knows safe from the consequences of her own actions.
• Kicked Upstairs: This ends up being his fate if he succeeds in apprehending Songbird. He is finally allowed to leave Night City and is promoted to a cushy desk job at the FIA headquarters in Langley. However, it's pretty clear that he would rather be out in the field than deal with the drudgery of office life.
• Lawful Stupid: His Fatal Flaw. Reed is a good man who genuinely only wants what's best for everyone, but his misplaced devotion to an organization that continuously bullies him into betraying his code of honor for the "greater good" and inflexibility in regards to the cause hurts both him and the people he cares about.
• "Leave Your Quest" Test: Once V activates him and leads him back to President Myers, Reed will ask V if they really want to stick around with the NUSA going forward. While Myers will try to dissuade V from leaving by pointing out that they'll give up on the chance to cure themselves, if V decides to leave nonetheless, the questline ends on the spot.
• Left for Dead: Right before he can escape back to the NUSA, Songbird betrays him; she traps him in a train cart, cuts off their communication line when he requests her help, and leaves him at the mercy of an Arasaka death squad hunting him down. We see him shot several times, but how Solomon survives the attack is left up in the air for the viewer. It's revealed that he was shot at least three times, but was rendered not fatal to ensure the handover between the NUSA and Arasaka for a "ceasefire" could go off without a hitch by handing off Reed as the price to be paid, allowing him time to recover in an ICU ward.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Twofold regarding Songbird. Reed knew her repeated intrusions into the Blackwall had a severe affect on her, but as far as he knew, it only chipped away at her memories. Songbird told him or Myers nothing of how she was actually dying. If you side with Reed at the end of Phantom Liberty and return Songbird to the NUSA, Reed tells V that he hasn't had any contact with her since, implying that either Myers is deliberately preventing him from speaking with her any further or the higher-ups are keeping Songbird on a very tight leash.
• Loyal to the Position: Reed isn't really loyal to Myers specifically so much as to her office as NUSA President. Thus, despite his personal misgivings against her, he's still more than willing to answer the call, even to his own detriment.
• Manchurian Agent: One of the NUSA's sleeper agents. Myers gives V an access code and phone number that "wakes him up" when she calls him.
• Meaningful Name: His association with the king of wands tarot card might mean that his name references the biblical king Solomon.
  • His name is also an reference to Reed-Solomon, a group of error-correction codes, which alludes to his status as a FIA agent needing to "correct" issues that the NUSA needs handling. Reed-Solomon codes were also used to help decipher part of the long-running FF:06:B5 ARG.
• Mirror Character:
  • Reed is one to Johnny Silverhand, with the latter remarking that the former is very much how he would have likely turned out had he not gone AWOL. Coincidentally, this also makes Johnny unusually more sympathetic to his plight than V would expect from him, regardless of the outcome. They even have the same habit of downing alcohol to deal with internal troubles. They also both deeply care about V and Songbird respectively, the two people they feel like they've pulled into something they don't deserve, NUSA servitude for Songbird and the fight against Arasaka for V. There's also the fact that they feel responsible for V's and Songbird's worsening condition, even though they didn't cause it maliciously or even directly when it comes to Reed. They both swear to do everything they can to save their proteges, but Reed trusts government/corpo solutions and wants Songbird to receive care from the NUSA, while Johnny wants to dismantle the power Arasaka has on Night City and wants to assist V in taking it down while getting to Mikoshi.
  • To Goro Takemura. Granted, one is a Corporate Samurai and the other is a federal agent, but both men are staunchly loyal to their respective factions. The sole difference between them is that Takemura is loyal to the Arasaka Corporation and the family who rules it for having given him a purpose and principles to follow whereas Reed is strictly loyal to the NUSA, not its leadership. Ironically, Takemura comes to realize how little he means to Arasaka in "The Tower" ending after he's blamed for Hanako's death while Reed remains loyal, though the expansion makes it very clear him sacrificing his principles for the sake of the NUSA is slowly destroying him to the point he may very well be Driven to Suicide as Johnny claims.
• Morton's Fork: No matter what choice V makes, Reed's original plan of capturing So Mi and personally shielding her from Myers is doomed to failure. The reason for this is obvious if V sides with So Mi and betrays Reed, but even if V goes along with Reed's plan, Songbird proves too resilient for Reed's trap to work and he eventually goes back to being Myers's lapdog. At least that's what he claims, as we didn't see him make any preparations for the original plan.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Reed is a true patriot for the NUSA, despite knowing that he was abandoned and betrayed by his own government. He justifies this as being loyal to his country, not the individual leaders in charge. It's a deconstruction, however, in that Reed's loyalty to the NUSA has constantly forced him to sacrifice his principles again and again to the point of destroying himself, simply because it's what is expected of him. Johnny expresses pity for Reed, even noting in the story path where Reed survives and Songbird is handed over to Myers that if Reed keeps going as he is, he'll likely kill himself.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The only ending where he finds any level of self reflection is the ending where you Mercy Kill So Mi. Even though your relationship with the FIA is in the gutter and Reed's career is in ruins too, he'll admit that you ultimately made the right choice, one he never could have made for So Mi.
• Named Weapons: Killing him in "Killing Moon" will allow you to loot an unique Militech Tichon pistol called "Pariah".
• Never My Fault: If V grants So Mi her wish of euthanasia, Reed will blame V for everything that went wrong in the op. Nevermind the fact that if he had simply listened to So Mi's wishes from the start, rather than blindly believing that NUSA was out to do good, So Mi could have easily had a much happier ending. Much later on however, after having some time to think on it, during his final encounter with V at the same ball court he met them at initially, Solomon takes back his prior hostility at V and owns up to his failures that led So Mi to seek a Mercy Kill because of how much of a Fair-Weather Friend he was to her when she needed him most.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While Myers is ultimately the one who drove Songbird to the lengths she goes through in the expansion, Reed is also responsible as he either ignored or failed to realize how horribly Songbird was treated. While he is well-meaning and wants to save his friend, he firmly believes Songbird can get the treatment she needs from the NUSA, who are the ones responsible for her condition in the first place.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ten of Swords shows that Jonas, was a young FIA sleeper agent under Reed's command. Jonas jumped the gun to assassinate Admiral Murata Ozuru...and got the target's entire family killed by mistake. Reed decides to save Jonas, and got trapped within Night City's borders while Arasaka launched a citywide manhunt against everybody even remotely involved with Murata's demise. The situation deteriorated until Myers had to offer an "olive branch" to Arasaka by making Reed into a scapegoat.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Reed is fairly calm and collected throughout most of the story, and while he clearly carries a great deal of emotional baggage, he tries to act professionally and rationally whenever he can. That makes the few moments where he loses his cool stand out. The first is if V accuses him of lying about his plan to shield Songbird from Myers and relocate her to Europe after he captures her. The second is when he calls V after they side with Songbird in "Firestarter". The third is if V gives Songbird a Mercy Kill after siding with Reed in "Firestarter". Broadly speaking, he's deeply insecure about not having done enough to look out for So Mi, and V agreeing with that sentiment and treating Reed as unworthy of having a say in her life is a really sore spot for him.
• Order Versus Chaos: The order to Songbird's chaos. Reed sympathizes with Songbird's desire for freedom and has his own problems with Myers, but his ultimate commitment is to the greater good of the NUSA, leading him to constantly disregard Songbird's wishes on the orders of his higher-ups.
• Out-Gambitted: Regardless of the path you take in "Firestarter", Reed will find himself outmatched and his plan will fall to pieces. If V sides with Songbird, the reason for this is obvious, but even if V does go along with Reed's plan, they'll learn the hard way that they've horribly underestimated Songbird, as she stops Reed's Icebreaker in its tracks before selling V and Alex out to Kurt (causing the latter's death) and escaping in the ensuing chaos. Things do end up worse for Songbird in the Reed path as she's taken in by Max-Tac before completing her escape, but Reed still ends up empty-handed no matter what.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Songbird. Sol was the one who recruited Song into the FIA as a lifeline after the latter earned the ire of NetWatch during a gig gone wrong and the two have essentially been inseparable ever since. This becomes a Deconstructed Trope as the plot of Phantom Liberty progresses, where its shown that while Song and Sol deeply care about one another, their shared occupations as FIA operatives has put a severe strain on their relationship, with Song's desire to finally be free from the President's grasp and Sol's unflinching allegiance to the NUSA and its ideals ultimately creating a irreparable rift between the two that their mutual bond just cannot overcome.
• Pretty Little Headshots: If you side with Songbird all the way to the end, you must kill Reed, ideally with a headshot. For this you're given an Overture revolver, but unlike what this gun usually does to human heads, on Reed it merely leaves a clean, barely bleeding entry wound in his forehead. Justified by Reed having the heavy subdermal armor cybernetic, which usually prevents the typical head explosions.
• Properly Paranoid: Paranoia comes with the territory of being a spy as it means you need to trust very few people. The events from 2070 have only shortened the list of people Reed actually trusts. V has to jump through more than a few hoops to meet him, much less get him to trust them, all the while warning them to not trust Songbird after she screwed him over and left him for dead. He's also a Control Freak by his own admission, as he prefers being able to handle how an operation goes in comparison to it flying off the rails and making predicting what will happen much, much harder.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: When V sees Reed again in the Tower ending, he's shown wearing a much more mundane suit-and-tie while looking more tired. A sign that he's been given a cushy desk job in Langley even before he tells them, and how he'd rather be out in the field rather just in an office.
• Soul-Crushing Desk Job: The Tower ending shows he gets Kicked Upstairs to one of these if he survives the game. While there are worse fates and it's arguably for his own good by sparing him from the emotional turmoil and trauma of sacrificing his values that the fieldwork brought, it's clear he chafes under a more peaceful life, having been long accustomed to being a spy and fighter.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: He means well, but he is a lowly agent with no real power, which means that he has very little to say in regards to how NUSA treats Songbird. In the endings where So Mi ends up back in their custody, Reed is completely walled off from what her current situation is.
• Tarot Motifs: The King of Wands, symbolizing a figure of strong principles, but reversed it also represents someone who is willing to take ruthless action for the greater good. As a deconstruction of The Fettered, he displays a strong commitment to the NUSA and is willing to do anything in the name of his country and protecting his people... unfortunately, this means he is willing to turn over the dying So Mi when she tries to escape Myers' grasp (under the justification that while she'd be basically enslaved, she'd have a stronger chance of surviving than her own plan to save herself), showing how even his friendship with her takes a backseat to the ideals he dedicated his life to.
• Undying Loyalty: Despite his grievances, he shows a firm devotion to his people and the NUSA and won't ever give up on either. This also proves to be his greatest weakness, as his inability to compromise on either leads to him ending up destroying his moral principles being forced to choose — which can end in his death on the route to help Songbird, as he will not abandon his loyalty to the NUSA for Songbird's freedom, leading to V having to kill Solomon on the spot.
  • In the King of Cups ending, it seems that his loyalty to the NUSA may have been shaken, maybe. Though he still instinctively sticks up for it (something V will notice), he seems to seriously consider simply not getting on the plane that will take him back to DC, since he knows all that awaits in a menial desk job serving a woman he's lost his respect for. That said, he's undecided as of the end of your conversation, and as he notes, the two of you will almost certainly never meet again.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In a manner of speaking, Reed is responsible for Songbird's condition seen in the game. While he was following orders to recruit So Mi, he either ignored or downplayed the issues she suffered while with the NUSA, things not only lead to her "agreeing" to undergo extensive cyberware surgery but also carry out more and more intrusions into the Blackwall that served to make her condition worse. All of these culminate in her desperate plan to escape the NUSA by making a deal with Kurt Hansen.
• Was It Really Worth It?: This is the question he seems to be wrestling with if he survives the story. The end credits have him justifying why it was necessary for him to deal with Songbird the way he did. It's painfully obvious from his mannerisms that the answer to this trope is a resounding no.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Songbird. Seven years prior to the events of the game and Phantom Liberty, Reed considered her a dear friend, even mentioning how she took him to a quesadilla joint in the past. Then she betrayed him and left him for dead by locking him in a train car with a bunch of gangoons and two Arasaka soldiers. While it's uncertain why So Mi betrayed him, it's left a noticeable strain on what little of their friendship is left. Downplayed by the time of the game, as Reed himself has no hard feelings over the betrayal, as he recognizes its not Songbird's fault (and also, he realizes what a horrible toll the Blackwall research took on her) — he does however have some sore feelings towards Myers, who was the one who actually orchestrated the double cross to begin with to buy off Arasaka's indignation over the Murata incident to prevent all-out war... but even his expressed frustration with Myers isn't enough to break his loyalty to her and the NUSA.

Alex

Alena "Alex" Xenakis

Voiced by: Yvonne Senat Jones (English)

A former aspiring braindance actress who now serves as a member of Reed's spy ring in Dogtown.

---

• Earn Your Happy Ending: In both the "King of Swords" and "King of Wands" endings. After spending seven years undercover in Dogtown and most of her life working covert operations for the FIA, Alex will finally get shipped off to Monte Carlo to retire in peace. She'll even send V a postcard, which they can find wedged in the door of their H10 apartment.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Downplayed with Reed. As she was fed a cover story about why Reed was put back into hibernation and never made privvy about the truth until the expansion, she makes it very clear her former friend and mentor is on her shitlist and on the short list of people she will not allow in her bar. Even when she does learn the truth, their friendship is never quite what it was before.
  • In the "King of Wands" ending, she doesn't hold any hard feelings against V for killing Reed. She'll even use their FIA token as "proof" she killed them instead of actually doing the job her bosses gave her, if only for pragmatic reasons.
• Hidden Depths: During her one-on-one chat with V before the mission, she reveals that she has a soft spot for musicals, and says that she enjoys tragic characters because she sees herself in them.
• I Call It "Vera": Her personal silenced pistol is known as "Her Majesty", which deals bonus headshot damage when Optical Camo is active. It's also the pistol that V is holding in the cover art.
• Irony: She is a shapeshifter who puts on performances and she is only one who is completely honest with V about their mission.
• Morphic Resonance: The only thing her "Daphne" persona has in common with her real appearance is they have the same seams from cyberware implantation below the neck.
• Not in This for Your Revolution:
  • Alex doesn't want to help Reed out of sympathy or patriotism to the NUSA, and only agrees to join him after she is promised a "spy's retirement"; a cushy diplomatic posting to a foreign resort city.
  • If you follow Songbird's route, this extends to her assignment to kill V. Alex doesn't hold a grudge over Reed's death and would prefer to cash in the mission by just letting V expire, if not outright using their FIA token as proof of doing the deed. She will also send you a postcard from her diplomatic mission and a braindance of Lizzy Wizzy's performance in the Black Sapphire (before making sure V and Reed are scrubbed from it), as a memento of V's first official spy mission.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Jokingly describes the terms of her contracted hit on V in such a manner after their betrayal of the NUSA and killing Solomon to help Songbird escape to the Moon, all while being aware that V is living on borrowed time anyway. She does stay her hand for the time being, if only to declare that V shouldn't go dying to just "anybody", as it's her job to finally kill them in the end.
• Queer Establishing Moment: For her retirement package she wants to live in Monaco, sipping champagne with some duchess.
• Retirony: Myers promises a full retirement plan to Alex if she helps Reed recover Songbird. She only survives if you side with Songbird in "Firestarter"; if you side with Reed, Hansen kills her.
• Shapeshifting: Has cybernetics that enable her to change her appearance.
• Super-Speed: She chips a Sandevistan implant that she only ever uses in a single cutscene.
• Tarot Motifs: The King of Swords which deals with clear thinking and truth. Yes, Alex is a spy, yes she is foul-mouthed and rude, but she is also the only one who sees their job for what it truly is. She doesn't see it like work for the greater good the way Reed does, does not play V like Songbird does and doesn't do it for the power of NUSA like Myers. She doesn't sugarcoat anything and tells V exactly what they're in for.
• We Used to Be Friends: Alex was on much friendlier terms with Reed up until 2070. As she was unaware that Reed was made the scapegoat to secure a "ceasefire" between Arasaka and the NUSA regarding the Admiral Murata incident and was instead told Reed sold out to Arasaka, she's understandably not happy to see him again. The first thing she does is cuss him out and tell Reed he's not welcome in her bar, even pulling a gun on him. She only starts showing a willingness to be around him again when Reed explains the situation to her, and she is promised a "spy's retirement" if she aids him and V in finding Songbird. Johnny lampshades this after their reunion, noting how Reed could have salvaged their relationship if he just told her, and that what remains of their friendship will likely fizzle out before long.

Dogtown

BARGHEST

In General

BARGHEST

BARGHEST's logo

Also known as Kurt's Militia, BARGHEST is the dominant gang controlling Dogtown, a Combat Zone situated in Pacifica. Originally made up of former Militech soldiers that fought alongside Kurt Hansen during the war over the years, mercenaries, other veterans, and even street punks have joined its ranks.

---

• Animal Motifs: Dogs. They rule over a district called Dogtown and the unit itself is named after ghostly dogs from the Scottish folklore that attack travelers. They're also very much based on military structure and hierarchy, likening them to military dogs and K9 units. They're often likened to dogs in game dialogue, being called things like "Hansen's loyal dogs", and themselves use a lot of dog-related terminology, calling new recruits "pups" that they will then shape into "hounds". The soldiers listen to Kurt Hansen and obey his orders, but they are also aggressive, and have no qualms about attacking or pestering the people of Dogtown, drawing from both inspirations of "demonic dogs that are a danger to regular folks" and "well-trained and obedient military dogs".
• Border Patrol: BARGHEST's Prevention Unit, in addition to serving as Dogtown's semi-official police force, helps man the heavily-armed checkpoints separating that portion of Pacifica from the rest of Night City. Notably, they will deny access to any vehicle identified as belonging to the NCPD.
• The Cartel: In addition to being classified as terrorists, BARGHEST in practice functions much more like a militarized Latin American drug cartel than the Valentinos.
• Dangerous Deserter: Almost all of BARGHEST's leadership are former Militech soldiers who decided to stay in Dogtown at Kurt Hansen's behest.
• The Dreaded: Compared to other gangs, BARGHEST is much more feared within Night City to the point that not even Trauma Team personnel would want to get involved with it.
• Elite Mooks: Comprised of trained former soldiers, BARGHEST is superior to virtually the entirety of Night City's gangs. Most tellingly, they have access to military-grade drones and AVs where the other gangs don't.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The militia primarily bases itself within the Black Sapphire, an abandoned skyscraper resort; the top floor also acts as a Smoky Gentlemen's Club for the rich and (in)famous, from Night City or otherwise, allowing them to make deals of a scale the street would (and should) never see, under Kurt Hansen's watchful eye.
• Foil: To the 6th Street Gang. While having similar ex-military origins, BARGHEST still conducts itself as a fairly professional military unit and are as well-equipped as anything Militech or the NUSA's armed forces could muster, as opposed to the 6th Street Gang devolving into glorified vigilante-gangsters LARPing as American military vets.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: BARGHEST's inner circle is largely comprised of ex-Militech and ex-NUSA military personnel, who've all turned rogue.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The in-game database entry for the organisation reveals that despite Hansen's high military rank, he started BARGHEST with a single squad of deserters after the Unification War, six of whom are still alive today. The fact that he managed to turn it into an international Arms Dealer syndicate and miniature city-state was a testament to his vision, charisma, and sheer lethality.
• Green and Mean: Heavily associated with a black-and-green palette, to the point where they even spray-paint their guns to match; Prevention Unit members are instead Red and Black and Evil All Over.
• Homemade Inventions: With an ample supply of Militech surplus and other spare parts to work with in Dogtown, BARGHEST has its own lineup of firearms that holds up surprisingly well against corporate competitors. Moreover, said guns manage to still retain a professional no-nonsense quality to them, instead of being slap-dash bootlegs.
• Keystone Army: Downplayed. While heavily organized and regimented it becomes clear that Hansen is just about the only one really holding it all together, with his death sparking a Succession Crisis that eventually forces Mr. Hands to intervene (through V) after the events of Phantom Liberty, in order to prevent its outright disintegration.
• Law Enforcement, Inc.: Despite the definition of a Combat Zone being that the police won't go there, BARGHEST's Prevention Unit serves as the semi-official police force of Dogtown. They even have their own Wanted Levels.
• The Mafiya: Despite being a rogue faction of the NUS Army, they've begun to adopt a few of the elements of this sort of organisation as a way of demonstrating their metamorphosis into a proper international crime syndicate. In addition to having a semi-tolerant relationship with the Eastern European Scavs (who are stronger in Dogtown than they are anywhere else in the city), they make uniquely extensive use of weapons from the Serbian Rostovic and Russian Techtronika arms manufacturers. Even Hansen himself has a Techtronika Metel pistol as his signature sidearm.
• Meaningful Name: BARGHEST takes its name and symbology from the titular Barghest, a mythical monstrous black dog from Northern England. Rather fitting, given the gang's origins as a band of military renegades.
• Mecha-Mooks: BARGHEST also has access to various military robots to supplement their numbers, be it Militech mechs that Hansen took along with him after going rogue, or those acquired through his connections later on.
• Mutually Assured Destruction: Heavily implied. Part of the reason why Dogtown hasn't been taken over yet by either the NUSA or Night City, is because BARGHEST has enough ordinance and trained manpower than it could both deal significant damage to the metropolis and make any attempt at invading the Combat Zone a Pyrrhic Victory at best.
• Pragmatic Villainy: BARGHEST troops do act as a police force if V starts killing civilians. However, this is done more out of expediency and a token effort to appear benevolent more than anything. Their dispatch reports even have them groaning about a 'concerned civilian' calling in a tone that makes it clear they'd rather not deal with the player's antics.
• Private Military Contractors: Not too unlike Militech, they're technically all mercenaries now as they work for pay but they're a criminal organization working for an Arms Dealer (that is their former commander). If Bennett assumes command after Hansen's death and without Jago's influence, they wind up becoming a glorified extension of Arasaka.
• The Remnant: Regardless of Phantom Liberty's outcome following Hansen's death and the ensuing Succession Crisis, BARGHEST remains a constant presence in Dogtown if implicitly under Mr. Hands' influence.
• Succession Crisis: Following Hansen's death during the DLC's main story, his top lieutenants and their respective loyalists start fighting among each other over who gets to succeed him. Mr. Hands eventually offers a gig to get the crisis sorted out before Dogtown can spiral into an even more chaotic mess than it already is.
• Undying Loyalty: Many if not everyone in BARGHEST are undoubtedly loyal to Hansen and will follow him to the grave if need be. It also means that while appearing as a unified front on the surface, Hansen's death in "Firestarter" leaves his inner circle free to fight each other over the now-empty throne, causing enough chaos that BARGHEST ceases to be a threat for the remainder of Phantom Liberty's story.
• Wretched Hive: A worse wretched hive inside another, bigger wretched hive, to be exact. BARGHEST-controlled Dogtown is just as lawless as Night City, if not worse. The gangs, corporations, and even the NCPD want nothing to do with the place, leaving the inhabitants to fend for themselves.

Kurt Hansen

Colonel Kurt Hansen

Voiced by: Eliah Mountjoy (English)

A former Militech veteran and current leader of the BARGHEST gang, who rules over Dogtown with an iron fist.

---

• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Is briefly playable in two drug-induced flashbacks in the "Balls to the Wall" side job.
• Animal Motifs: Dogs. He rules over a place called Dogtown, the bar where he resides is called "K9" (like the name for American police and military units that utilize trained dogs, also a pun on "canine") and his own private militia is called "BARGHEST", like the ghostly dog-like spirits from Scottish mythology. Solomon calls his turf a "wolf's den". Due to his military background, Hansen portrays himself and BARGHEST as a group of well-disciplined and professional ex-military people (thematically linking his unit and himself to dogs used by the military, who are well-trained and know what they're doing), but in reality both he and BARGHEST do whatever they want in Dogtown, abusing people who live there and using needless violence and cruelty, likening BARGHEST units to demonic dogs that wander a destroyed wasteland and attack any survivors for kicks. It also links Johnny's fervent dislike of Kurt outside of their more obvious worldview/morality clashes, given that Johnny is often symbolized by cats. He also possesses an LMG known as Wild Dog as well as a knife called Fang.
• Arc Villain: Of Phantom Liberty, being the most up front threat V has to deal with to protect President Myers.
• Arms Dealer: Kurt Hansen primarily makes his money dealing arms using his former Militech contacts and taking a slice of every business in Dogtown. It has made him fantastically wealthy despite the conditions in his micro-city.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Kurt personally gets in punching matches with new recruits to see if they have the stuff to join.
• The Bad Guy Wins: If V fails the opening mission of Phantom Liberty, Hansen succeeds in assassinating the NUSA president and continues his reign of Dogtown completely unopposed. He also succeeds in screwing Songbird over, which is part of the reason she's so furious at V if Myers dies.
• Bald of Evil: Nary a hair on his evil head. Archive photos in the safe house show he used to have hair before deserting, so he went more bald as he went more evil.
• Benevolent Boss: One of the reasons why BARGHEST is constantly getting new recruits is because they know that Hansen rewards his troops for loyalty and good performance. If you follow his lead and get the job done, he will reward you greatly.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Played with. Kurt is the most up front and personal threat V has to deal with since both he and his BARGHEST troops want to capture or kill the NUSA President, whose shuttle crashlands in his territory. He's also the furthest thing from incompetent as V can attest to. He's ultimately killed by Alex if V sides with Songbird, and his death occurs in the background. However, if V sides with Reed, then they have to battle Kurt in a traditional boss fight. Regardless of how he goes out, he's quickly forgotten about with Songbird's struggles taking center stage.
• Big Brother Is Watching You: Large billboards and televisions are plastered with his face, sometimes showing messages about how he is protecting the people of Dogtown from harm.
• Blackmail Backfire: He tries to blackmail President Myers over how she violates the Blackwall treaty. Myers green-lights the hit on him instead, which leads to his eventual death.
• Bullying a Dragon: Hansen believes that he could threaten and blackmail Myers with what he knows about her plans, only to grossly underestimate her.
• Canned Orders over Loudspeaker: Barely a minute goes by in Dogtown without hearing Hansen's voice over the district's PSA system. While his announcements often concern recent events, a lot of them are almost certainly pre-recorded to be played on a loop several times per day.
• Colonel Badass: He is no joke in a fight. You end up fighting him, if you betray Songbird in Firestarter. He is a textbook Lightning Bruiser.
• Colonel Kurtz Copy: He's a bald-headed NUSA/Militech Colonel who defected during the last days of a major war to form a fanatical Cult of Personality deep within a ravaged region isolated from the rest of the world. Hell, the fact that his first name is literally Kurtz sans the "z" just makes his status as an Expy even more glaringly obvious.
• Cutscene Boss: If you betray Reed in Firestarter, Alex is able to take advantage of the resulting confusion and decisively overwhelmes him in close combat using her Sandevistan.
• Dangerous Deserter: Helped to wrestle control of Dogtown away from Night City during the Reunification Wars, then refused to follow orders to move out in favor of setting up a smuggling operation. Now Hansen effectively serves as Dogtown's kingpin, ruling over the place with with his fellow war deserters.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Although he's killed off by either V or Alex, his death doesn't end the expansion's story and instead shifts over to the ignited conflict between Reed, Myers, and Songbird.
• The Dreaded: Even with his carefully-crafted PR, Hansen is feared by many in Night City, with his guests at the Black Sapphire knowing better than to draw his ire.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: He dies pretty unceremoniously if V sides with Songbird. Alex kills him in the background while Songbird tries to get access to one of his machines.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • In a strange way, to Johnny Silverhand. Both men served the NUSA and turned tail, though whereas Johnny left because of his disillusionment with the military and his country and turned to a career as a merc and rockerboy, Kurt went AWOL after claiming Dogtown and rules over it a la Totalitarian Utilitarian. They even have flashback sequences where they're playable and depicted as unstoppable with their primary weapon being a Hand Cannon, though Hansen's are optional and aren't nearly as extensive or important to the plot of Phantom Liberty as Johnny's are.
  • He's similar to Fixers like Padre and Muamar in that he claims to look after the people in his district despite his crimes. Unlike them, however, he doesn't care at all about the people of Dogtown and all his rhetoric does little to mask how he's only in it for his own gain.
• Eviler than Thou: As much of a ruthless backstabber Songbird was, her original plan did show some measure of restraint. She only worked with Kurt Hansen to get President Myers stranded in Dogtown, following which V would bail her out and Songbird would escape in the ensuing confusion. However, she grossly underestimates how much more ruthless Kurt is, as he decides to simply shoot down Space Force One and outright kill Myers, which would grant him a decisive victory over the NUSA and leave Songbird isolated and at his mercy if he succeeds (which he can if you fail to rescue Myers in time).
• Faux Affably Evil: Hansen can certainly feign coming across as relaxed and approachable. As seen when he allows V and Reed to leave the Black Sapphire alive after infiltrating a party, however, he betrays a clear teeth-clenched rage just simmering underneath his civil veneer, though he does admit to being tired of putting up airs.
• Flunky Boss: His Boss Battle starts with him being backed up by a handful of BARGHEST elite soldiers that should be taken out first before they have a chance to outflank V. The rest is then a standard boss fight against Hansen alone.
• Foil: Like Reed he was left hung out to dry by his country after leading a highly-dangerous op in Night City. Unlike Reed, he decided to give his superiors the finger and build a power base for himself.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: While Hansen has already come a long way from NUSA groundpounder to undisputed ruler of Dogtown, Mr. Hands implies that he's in the process of becoming too powerful and dangerous for his own good.
• Karmic Death: If V fights him as a Climax Boss then the finisher has him being stabbed in the neck by his own knife. The same one he uses to stab Alex to death.
• Killed Offscreen: Provided that V doesn't finish him off, Hands will later send a message that Hansen "gave up the ghost" at his med room... after all the cameras went off at once while his security guard was outside for a smoke.
• Last Disrespects: After V stabs him with his own knife, they immediately kick Hansen in the face for good measure.
• Lightning Bruiser: He possesses a Sandevistan, and after losing enough health he'll give up using his machine gun, pull out his knife and relentlessly speed towards V for either a Goomba Stomp or try to cut them to pieces.
• Lonely Funeral: Notable that despite being a billionaire and having an army, only a handful of BARGHEST soldiers show up for his funeral. The gigantic party room is almost completely empty and V can point this out to Jago, who gets defensive. It's implied, however, that Kurt's second-in-command Bennett intentionally kept the invite list small, in order to ensure there was as little "opposition" as possible to his assuming command.
• Named Weapons: Defeating him in "Firestarter" allows V to loot 3 unique weapons from his body; a light machine gun called Wild Dog, a revolver called Bald Eagle, and his knife called Fang.
• Old Soldier: A veteran of the Reunification Wars that took place in 2069-2070, whose military background allows him to keep a hold on his power over Dogtown.
• One-Man Army: The playable Hansen in Paco's side-mission takes down multiple Scavs with ease and he puts up a hell of a fight against V if they betray Songbird.
• Only in It for the Money: While classified as a terrorist, Kurt Hansen doesn't have any higher aims for his activities and only took over Dogtown because he saw the financial opportunities available in ruling over an unclaimed portion of Night City.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • While he rules Dogtown with an iron fist and actively pushes out the NCPD and corpo security forces, Kurt is smart enough not to get in MaxTac's way. Not only are MaxTac perfectly capable of curbstomping BARGHEST if they really felt like it, they also deal with cyberpsychos that Kurt would otherwise have to waste his own resources putting down.
  • As revealed in a later mission, he actually has very close ties to the NCPD, various gangs, and celebrities. Despite his rhetoric about Dogtown being independent, he cultivates these connections so he can gain more money and influence than if he'd kept Dogtown as a truly walled-off district.
• Properly Paranoid: Even while enjoying himself at the Black Sapphire party, his keen survival instincts and spatial awareness allow him to quickly see through Reed and V's ruse.
• Psycho Knife Nut: As befitting a sociopathic renegade soldier, he uses a knife called "Fang" during the later phases of his boss fight. V can use it to finish him off.
  • Fang works with Bald Eagle in an especially sadistic combo; not only does Fang immobilize an enemy if you shiv them in the leg, but if you shoot a Fang with Bald Eagle while it's buried in a leg, then it explodes, dealing massive damage and amputating the leg (and generating a new Fang to play with). This summarizes how psychotic Kurt got when using Fang.
• Skippable Boss: Whether or not you need to fight him depends on the ending path you choose. If you side with Songbird over Reed, Hansen is a Cutscene Boss automatically killed by Alex, whereas on the Reed path he kills Alex instead and must be fought a bit later.
• Spanner in the Works: Songbird's original plan goes down the drain when he decides to shoot down Space Force One rather than let it land so they could pick up the president like Song intended.
• Super-Speed: He possesses a Sandevistan, which he uses during combat to zip around the area and close the distance against V.
• Totalitarian Utilitarian: He uses his oppressive regime of soldiers to supposedly protect the people of Dogtown from the chaos of rival gangs, the NCPD, NUSA occupation, and corporate taxation. That said, it’s also a means of protecting himself and staying in control.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Songbird. While he does make things difficult for her by shooting down Myers' ship, he ultimately fails no matter what since he's either killed by Alex in a cutscene or taken down as a Climax Boss by V, unless of course V botches the opening mission and allows him to succeed in killing Myers, which unceremoniously ends the story then and there with his implied victory.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Despite Hansen's status as a terrorist and renegade, he's curried enough good favor within Night City to be approached for interviews with corporate media, who also coincidentally are made welcome in his parties.
• Visionary Villain: You don't go from NUSA groundpounder to undisputed ruler of an entire Night City district without having a vision and knowing how to achieve it. While Hansen doesn't have any grandiose ambitions, late-game dialogue with him does reveal that he has plans to expand his arms dealing business to Europe.
• Walking Armory: He has the unique distinction of having three Iconic Weapons: the LMG Wild Dog, the revolver Bald Eagle and the dagger Fang.
• While Rome Burns: Hansen couldn't care less about Dogtown itself or the people living there, unless they stand in BARGHEST's way. He's otherwise content hosting parties in the Black Sapphire and accumulating more power for himself while his "domain" convulses right below him.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: His cyber-eyes have yellow irises, like a wolf's. It gives him an uncanny slyness, showing that he's as careful and calculating as he is brutal.

Yuri Bychkov

Yuri Bychkov

Voiced by:

Hansen's lieutenant. Yuri has been with him since Midnight Storm, the operation to occupy Pacifica for Militech.

---

• Frame-Up: One of the plans that V can come up with is framing Yuri for the thefts. It doesn't work.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: A screw-up (implied by a dialogue choice in the sidequest he shows up in to be Yuri mishandling conversations with the NCPD commissioner badly enough that the rest of the force knows about BARGHEST's deals with the commissioner) has resulted in Yuri becoming a minor member of the BARGHEST organization instead of Hansen's trusted lieutenant.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: He's been heavily involved in BARGHEST from the beginning and has a mysterious backstory. None of it matters to the main plot and he dies or lives because of an irrelevant nobody in a side gig.
• Skippable Boss: If you get Paco out of Night City, you'll never have to fight him.

Albert Murphy

Albert Murphy

Voiced by:

One of Hansen's original soldiers, Albert acts as an approachable representative of BARGHEST, handling issues with a lighter touch than many of his fellows.

---

• Named Weapons: Drops an unique electric baton called "Murphy's Law" if you side with Songbird in "Firestarter".

Chester Bennett

Lieutenant Colonel Chester Bennett

Voiced by: Joseph Capp

Hansen's chief aide. A highly loyal officer who has followed Hansen since Operation Midnight Storm, he is the field commander of BARGHEST.

---

• Did Not Think This Through: He doesn't anticipate Arasaka turning against him the moment he sells out BARGHEST to the MegaCorp. He will attack a supposed legendary assassin after he calls him out on allying with Arasaka.
• Dumb Muscle: Played With. Bennett doesn't anticipate Arasaka betraying him and is significantly less politically-savy than Jago. On the other hand, when it comes to dealing with military affairs, he runs circles around the latter.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Mr. Hands assumes he's the best man for the job but he is unaware of what his deal with Arasaka will truly mean for BARGHEST.
• Large and in Charge: He's a very hefty looking man and possibly the new ruler of BARGHEST.
• Lightning Bruiser: Has a pair of Gorilla Arms and a Sandevistan, which makes him into one of these.
• Puppet King: He can wind up becoming this to Mr. Hands, especially should Jago be made The Consigliere.
• The Quisling: Intends to sell out BARGHEST to Arasaka after Hansen's death, only to find out too late that Arasaka actually intends to double-cross him.
• Southern-Fried Private: Speaks in a very deep southern accent, and while Bennett is very savvy regarding BARGHEST's military needs, his intelligence on political matters leaves a lot to be desired.
• Undying Loyalty: He is known for being bloodthirsty and a sadist, but also unshakeably loyal to Hansen.
• The Unintelligible: Bennett's accent makes it so his speeches are sometimes gibberish versus Hansen's clearer speaking voice.
• You Are in Command Now: Being Hansen's second, he assumes command of BARGHEST after Hansen is killed during the DLC's main story. It doesn't change much, if anything, about how they operate, other than his PSA announcements replacing Hansen's.

Jago Szabó

Jago Szabó

Voiced by:

A former Petrochem corpo, Jago helped lay the foundation of BARGHEST and has served as its treasurer since its founding.

---

• The Consigliere: Leaving Bennett in charge and making Jago this is probably the best ending (for BARGHEST) as Jago is too timid to lead properly but far smarter than Bennett.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He's all over the place in various Phantom Liberty missions, though usually out of reach. He's even inspecting cargo in the line of vehicles before you even enter Dogtown.
• Dirty Coward: Is very easily intimidated by V in their disguise, either at the meeting with the Voodoo Boys or at Hansen's funeral.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Jago is viewed this by Mr. Hands, who doesn't believe that a "bean counter" can control BARGHEST. Indeed, it requires a lot of effort on V's behalf to make him leader.
• Non-Action Guy: He is the only member of BARGHEST's leadership who is not a soldier and instead strictly works as a bookkeeper and negotiator.
• Pretty Boy: Notably in his mid-30s, yet he has a very young and almost Bishonen appearance, reinforced by his hairstyle and implants making it seem as if he's wearing an 18th-century powdered wig (though as per his databank entry, this is mostly due to being assigned female at birth).
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Many of the measures instituted by BARGHEST, including the otherwise ironclad security around the Black Sapphire and flooding of its basement levels, are revealed to be his handiwork.
  • He's also only moving against Bennett because the latter is trying to sell them out to Arasaka.
• Puppet King: His fate if he becomes BARGHEST's commander, being implicitly at Mr. Hands' mercy.
• Queer Establishing Moment: His databank reveals that he was born under the name "Jagoda" which is a feminine Eastern European name meaning "berry". Him going by "Jago" and using he/him pronouns implies that he is transmasculine, possibly a trans man.
• Vocal Dissonance: His voice is unusually high-pitched for a man in his 30s. His databank entry reveals that it’s because he’s female-to-male transgender, and unlike with Claire, his gender identity is never directly mentioned in-game.
• You Are in Command Now: If Bennett's not made leader, then Jago assumes command.

Charles Graham

Charles Graham

Voiced by:

Jago's bodyguard, Graham came to Dogtown following a life of crime after his family's fortune was bankrupted in Vienna.

---

Dodger

Carl "Dodger" Robinson

Voiced by:

A lieutenant in BARGHEST who operates in Pacifica out of an abandoned NCPD station as a smuggler and drug dealer.

---

• Actually Pretty Funny: Dodger's reaction if you tell him the truth about the two cops and how they ended up covered in blood in his basement.
• Affably Evil: Deconstructed. Dodger is fairly reasonable for a drug lord and will let the two idiot cops you're here to rescue walk away with their lives if V is straight with him and didn't kill any of his men. Knocking them out is fine. That said, Dodger is still a drug lord at the end of the day and will use this fuck-up to Blackmail both cops and the fiancée who hired you after everything is said and done. Of course, that can all be avoided if V simply decides to zero the lieutenant right then and there.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Averted. He only wants to kill you if you kill some of his men.
• A Father to His Men: He'll forgive anything but murdering his people.
• Friendly Neighborhood Gangster: Is willing to shrug off the loss of 10K+ in drugs for the sake of a good story. He's also not interested in unwarranted revenge.
• Named Weapons: Uses an Overture revolver called "Roscoe". It knocks enemies shot in the leg to the ground, and grounded enemies take critical headshots. Perfect for kicking someone when they're down.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: To a couple of regular NCPD cops, a Dangerous Deserter like Dodger is someone to be feared. But to a Edgerunner like V, Dodger and his men are nothing more than easy eddies.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Killing two police officers for screwing up returning some of his stolen property is bad business. Killing someone who kills his men is another matter.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite being a BARGHEST and a gangster, he's really a fairly decent guy.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: His personal weapon is "Rosco", a unique Overture that will instantly neutralize any enemy if you shoot them in the leg and head in that order.

Leon Rinder

Leon Rinder

Voiced by: Ray Chase

Hailing from a broken family and violent streets, Rinder found his home in Hansen's Militech unit and served him loyally. However, his combat implants began to drive Rinder to greater violence and blackouts, leading to a massacre in the Stacks and Rinder fleeing Dogtown.

---

• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Regina Jones can be contacted to treat his cyberpsychosis but V will have to give up Rinder's bribe. Rinder absolutely refuses until V tells him the other option is a bullet to the brain.
• Asshole Victim: He may be mentally ill but is a racist, classist ex-BARGHEST killer anyway.
• Ax-Crazy: Is suffering the beginnings of cyberpsychosis and went on a killing spree he doesn't remember. This isn't his first blackout either.
• The Cameo: Makes a quick appearance in Paco's drug-induced recounting of the events that put him neck deep in the shit creek.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Clearly is suffering from early onset cyberpsychosis. Is in denial about it, though.
• Dehumanization: Considers the people who live in the stacks (literal shipping crates) to be like cockroaches.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: If V decides to end his life after his massacre in the Stacks.
• Heel–Face Turn: If he receives treatment for his cyberpsychosis, he loses his Jerk with a Heart of Jerk attitude and actually feels a lot of guilt about what he's done.
• Mirror Character: To Johnny, at least in reference to his life in the army; Rinder essentially represents a Johnny Silverhand that never deserted from the war and stayed a loyal solider, sharing similar egos and violent streaks, as well as expressing remorse for their actions when properly prodded. Further driving the parallels home, their last names are notably only one letter off of each other (Leon Rinder versus Robert John Linder). Notably, the hotel Rinder went to after leaving Hansen's army is right next to the Pistis Sophia Hotel, the place Johnny stayed in after he deserted.
• Named Weapons: Used to own an unique shotgun called Dezerter that he will give to V as thanks for sparing him in the "The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman" gig.
• Professional Killer: Did dirty jobs for Hansen because he wasn't one of the original recruits. So much so that he became infamous for it.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Wants to remove his incredibly advanced cybernetics to replace them with weaker tech because he needs money. In fact, this is what he needs to get rid of his cyberpsychosis or at least make it much less severe.
• That Man Is Dead: Rinder says this about the hired killer he used to be. V may argue otherwise.

Babs

Barbara "Babs" Okoye

Voiced by:

A soldier for BARGHEST who acts as a big sister figure to Paco.

---

• Action Girl: Being one of the rare, but not unheard of, female BARGHEST.
• Big Sister Instinct: Barbara chooses to help Paco escape BARGHEST even though he's a traitor.
• Karma Houdini: One of the rare criminals to be able to escape Night City if V helps her and Paco escape.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The best solution to the quest with her and Paco.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Adopts a cynical attitude about Paco's plan to rip off BARGHEST despite them being an armed paramilitary organization.
• Those Two Guys: Is inseparable with Paco Torres.

Paco Torres

Paco Torres

Voiced by:

A "pup" who recently was inducted into BARGHEST only to immediately fall out of favor with Hansen.

---

• Animal Motifs: Dogs, like the rest of BARGHEST, particularly with a view to him being a pup who joined the pack. His situation also recalls a dog-related aphorism: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."
• Cruel and Unusual Death: If V suggests Paco to frame Yuri for thefts, they'll find his headless corpse publicly hanging above the street as a demonstration of what happens to those who steal from BARGHEST. Even worse? The scanner says it was done with a blunt instrument meaning it wasn't quick.
• Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Paco uses a dicey inhaler of drugs to share with V during his storytelling. It enhances V's understanding of events considerably.
• Imagine Spot: The inhaler he has V huff allows V to imagine parts of his story as if V were Hansen himself, beating the crap out of Paco in his initiation and massacring Scavs in the convoy mission.
• Karma Houdini: Can be one of the rare criminals in Night City who make it out if V arranges a way for him to get out of the city. He can also evade any punishment from Hansen and still remain in BARGHEST if V instead arranges for the delivery of replacement generators.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If V gets Panam to take Paco to Africa in order to escape Hansen's wrath.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The rather lengthy story he tells focuses on the "cool" parts and ignores the point of it all. Basically, "Hansen fought me in my initiation and it was rad" then "Hansen shot up a bunch of Scavs with me and it was rad" while the part where he stole inventory (the entire reason he needs your help) is relegated almost to an afterthought.
• Stupid Evil: Decided to steal from a BARGHEST convoy Hansen himself was riding shotgun on, which was his first mission (admittedly because he decided to klep a few generators that weren't on the manifest of said convoy), and if V helps out with getting him out of Dogtown themselves rather than calling up friends to do it he joins the Scavengers and thinks Babs would spare him should they cross paths again because she's a friend.
  • He sees nothing wrong with the act of stealing itself, saying it would be more stupid to not immediately steal something he had a chance at. Babs, V and Johnny Silverhand all collectively roll their eyes.
  Babs: (describing Paco in a single sentence) ''S'like talking to a kid sometimes. S'like he thinks he can only get pretend hurt."
• Those Two Guys: Is inseparable with Babs.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Paco works very hard to get accepted into BARGHEST and immediately betrays them after his first mission.

Residents

Farida Nazeri

Farida Nazeri

Voiced by: Shala Nyx

The child of two refugee immigrants from Iran, Farida followed in their footsteps and received medical training, only to be thrown onto the frontlines of the Unification War by Militech. She ended up with Hansen's unit in Dogtown, where she saw his ideals distorted by power, but found herself with relative freedom with a clinic and a steady stream of BARGHEST and private clients.

---

• The Mole: Was part of Hansen's original Barghest crew when he came to Night City. While nominally a member of Barghest, she is loyal to NUSA.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Even after seven years in Dogtown she still feels like a soldier at heart. This results in her aiding old contacts like Reed when needed under Hansen's nose.

Aaron Waines

Aaron Waines

Voiced by:

A former member of the Animals who left to become a boxer back in his home district of Dogtown.

---

• Beneath Notice: Aaron was able to keep a low enough profile that not only do his former sparring buddies have no clue where he's really hiding, but neither do the Animals. The only way his old gang finds out is if he doesn't dive during a boxing match.
• Bittersweet Ending: Aaron becomes a mentor of kids if you help destroy his career by convincing him to take a dive. If you fight and defeat the leader of the Animals in the GIM quest before Phantom Liberty (but don't skip to Phantom Liberty in the new game) he goes down in the 10th round but he goes down fighting instead of diving.
• Downer Ending: His quest if you act like a hero who refuses to back down but you either avoid fighting the Animals leader earlier or skipping to Phantom Liberty in the new game. He ends up getting killed.
• Establishing Character Moment: Aaron is in a fight with another boxer that V can bet on. Whether he wins or loses he gets taunted about his past taking dives.
• Reformed Criminal: Aaron used to bust legs for the Animals and isn't nearly as innocent a guy that he claims to be. However, he genuinely wants to get out of the life.
• Scary Black Man: Used to be this for the Animals but is now no longer an enforcer.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Aaron doesn't win the fight with the former heavyweight champion even if you help him. He lasts ten rounds and gets knocked out.
  • The Animals eventually track down and kill Aaron if you skip the fight with Sasquatch and help him escape the Animals.
• Throwing the Fight: Aaron used to do this for the Animals in order to repay them for his chrome. He now wants to be free of them and box cleanly.

Anthony Anderson

Anthony Anderson

Voiced by:

A surgeon and ripperdoc who works at the Haven clinic, providing his services to the residents of Dogtown for free.

---

• Asshole Victim: Anderson has this view about the Scavs, which is Jerkass Has a Point.
• Blatant Lies: Says he's never put down a patient who could be saved. Mr. Hands notes that he wants any Scavs, even ones V takes down non-lethally, examined for parts.
• Horrifying the Horror: The Scavs going through his clinic are disturbed, in particular one who finds a hand on a corpse that he knows used to be from a buddy of his. They really don't like this taste of their own medicine.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Anderson will complain if V doesn't immediately kill Nika. Mostly because his left hand is injured.
• Organ Theft: Is willing to do this to Scavs. Which is a Karmic Death for a lot of them.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: A genuine saint to most of Dogtown's people but fully willing to kill Scavs to harvest their organs and cyberware.
• Pragmatic Hero: Doesn't hesitate to kill Scavs and use their parts to save the peopke of Dogtown. It'd be monstrous if not for the fact that Scavs are, well, Scavs. Also, according to him, the one he harvested for parts that led to the whole incident was already brain dead from drug use the moment he landed on his table, so from Anthony's perspective, giving the scav a lethal dose of morphine was not only pragmatic but a Mercy Killing.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Catholic Church, still active in 2077, would have helped the clinic if not for Anderson's incredibly shady past.

Odell Blanco

Odell Blanco

Voiced by: Joe Hernandez-Kolski

Once a Catholic priest, Odell is now the spiritual advisor in the Haven clinic, his former church turned safespace for the poorest residents of Dogtown.

---

• Crisis of Faith: Not so much in God but whether being a priest is something that actually helps a community that needs medical supplies and other material aid.
• Dramatic Irony: Odell could actually get the clinic in Dogtown funded by the Catholic Church and other nonprofits if not for Anderson's Dark and Troubled Past.
• Good Shepherd: A man who helps Doctor Anderson with his clinic despite his lack of medical knowledge.

Briana Dolson

Briana Dolson

Voiced by:

A community leader of the Longshore Stacks, Briana guides her community with a philosophy of mutual aid and sacrifice for each other while maintaining a distrust of outsiders.

---

• Black-and-White Morality: When asked why Rinder went postal, she says "evil is just evil, there is no reason for it." Turns out the situation was more complex than she believed, though.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Hires V to deliver street justice against a Barghest soldier, Rinder.

Fiona Vargas

Fiona Vargas

Voiced by:

The head of the Center of Neuromotor Development, Site 341, beneath the surface of Dogtown. Fiona oversees the cybernetic sculpting of promising child athletes into the next big stars of tomorrow.

---

• Even Evil Has Standards: A shard you can find on the body of Joanne Koch (yes, THAT Joanne Koch) shows that Koch reached out to Vargas, hoping to get Vargas on board for her "Nightingale" project.^note Details are sketchy about what it is, but part of it involved infecting an entire Nomad Clan with a virus and subjecting them to gruesome, painful deaths; needless to say it ain't pretty. Vargas, however, not only declines the offer, but outright says that Koch has no respect for human life, and pointedly tells her not to contact her again. Given what kind of shit Vargas is up to, it's telling that she's the one with ethical reservations to Koch's practices.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: She wears a pair of very small pince-nez and has zero qualms about experimenting on children for financial gain.
• Jerkass Has a Point: A lot of the children in Dogtown have no way out of it other than sports.
• Hate Sink: Despite her smooth-talking persona, there's practically nothing redeemable about her. Even Johnny, for all his jadedness, is genuinely taken aback by how loathsome her business truly is.
• Karma Houdini: Can get away with her crimes with only a mild scandal if V accepts a bribe (or does so to help a young child achieve their dreams) versus having their business ruined.
  • That being said, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from flatlining her once you accept the deal. So if you want, you can take the bribe/get a kid a sponsorship and then send her to Hell.
• Lack of Empathy: Fiona doesn't see anything wrong with what she does despite the kids being used, experimented on, and discarded like commodities.
• Moral Myopia: Doesn't understand why V, a hardened street merc, finds her business disgusting.
• Only in It for the Money: Fiona Vargas is running her operation purely for financial gain rather than any benefit to the children or sports.
• Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: She's a bit more than a talent agent, but she's ultimately a slimy corpo whose job involves molding kids into having successful athletic careers through putting implants in them at an extremely early age.
• Would Hurt a Child: Her experiments are designed to turn children into athletes but drastically shortens their lives.

Lina Malina

Lina Malina

Voiced by:

The "Queen Bitch of Dogtown", Lina is an aspiring BD star whose content ranges from rolling with the Scavs to pornography.

---

• Batter Up!: Her signature weapon is a bat known as "Baby Boomer". You can acquire it depending on how the quest "Dazed and Confused" goes.
• Jerkass Has a Point: She'll rudely reject V should they try to milk Tool's situation it for sympathy rather than pay her to participate in the Brainporium BD, but she's ultimately correct that V should take Tool to a doctor and not her if he's as bad off as they say he is.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: You would think she would be nothing more than a stuck-up bitch judging by how people describe her and your first meeting with her. She can in fact show quite a nice side and is actually really cool in regards to the Brainstorm BD.
• Named Weapons: Is the owner of the unique baseball bat called "Baby Boomer" mentioned above.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Her controversial nature, sexual content, and selling bathwater gives her more than a few similarities to online content creator Belle Delphine.
• Stripperific: Fitting for somebody who does (among other things) porn. She wears a highly-sexualized outfit.

Michael Maldonado

Michael Maldonado

Voiced by:

The owner of an arcade parlor in Dogtown, Michael has a checkered past of failed jobs and criminal associations. His greatest failure, however, was as a father, a mistake he seeks to make up for now by protecting his son from an overzealous district attorney.

• Ambiguous Situation: It's ambiguous where the truth lies between his story and Georgina's. He claims that everything that she brought him about his son was bullshit and when he refused to testify, she had her henchman beat him up to make him confess. She on the other hand claims that his son is a typical gangoon with all sorts of crimes under his belt and that Michael was happy to testify against him for money, claiming the only reason he sent you to get the testimony deleleted is that he's scared his son's gang will find out about the testimony and come for him. She even shows you footage of his testimony, and while her goon does pace back and forth behind him menacingly, he never lays a hand on Michael. One thing to note is that the only reason Mr. Hands took him on as a client was because he was offering to pay extra, yet when you find him, he is an arcade cabinet repair man in a very small and ratty office space that feels more like a storage closet; a career that wouldn't exactly leave him flush with eddies to overpay fixers and mercenaries, so it does at least seem likely that he did accept a bribe for his testimony. The question then becomes did he contact Mr. Hands out of fear of retribution like Georgina claims, or perhaps out of guilt for selling out his own son.

---

Ronald P.T. Malone

A junk vendor working out of Dogtown that is the town gossip.

---

• Beneath Suspicion: Ronald is someone who knows a huge amount of what is going on in Dogtown.
• The Informant: Malone is aware of a fantastic amount of what's going on in Dogtown and happy to share that information with V.
• Motor Mouth: Despite meeting V for possibly five minutes, will send them dozens of texts, commenting on everything going on in Dogtown like they're best friends.

Others

Aurore and Aymeric Cassel

Skylight

Twin netrunners from France known together by the handle "Skylight". They were hired by Hansen to help with the neural matrix he dug up from the abandoned Militech bunker in Dogtown. V and Alex are tasked with impersonating them on a meeting with Hansen to help save Songbird. They have also both previously worked on Cynosure (Militech's version of Soulkiller).

Tropes regarding both of them

• Alas, Poor Villain: V, who has probably killed or disabled small armies by this point, can consider their execution to be wholly unnecessary and calls Reed out for it.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared to the vast majority of characters in Phantom Liberty, they're just a couple of data thieves.
• Character Death: They are both kidnapped by V as as part of their plan with Reed and Alex to infiltrate Hansen's headquarters. Not wanting to risk them potentially escaping and warning Hansen, Alex and Reed tase them unconscious and promptly execute them.
• The Cracker: They are employed at retrieving data from Militech sites and equipment. They also steal from other thieves.
• Evil Redhead: They're redheads and have been hired by Kurt Hansen, the oppressive ruler of Dogtown. Their one principle is "morals can always be exchanged for money".
• Foil: The Cassel siblings are this to Anders Hellman, Arasaka's resident Herr Doktor. While similarly talented European experts involved with developing some version of Soulkiller, Hellman does have some moral standards, and is genuinely fascinated by his research. For Aurore and Aymeric Cassel, however, they see their expertise as a means to an end, which is simply to make it rich, damn the consequences. Moreover, they're freelancers all too happy to offer their services to the highest bidder, something that Hellman is either unable or unwilling to do unless forced by circumstance such as going to Kang Tao following Saburo's murder.
• French Jerk: Their French accent is as strong as their morals are weak.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Aurore is a chatty, extravert party girl, while Aymeric is much more introverted and doesn't even drink. It's in their occupations too. Aurore sells real estate, whereas Aymeric is an accountant.
• Small Role, Big Impact: While they're just a pair of talented data thieves, their direct involvement in Project Cynosure allowed Militech to complete it.
• Theme Twin Naming: Both of their names start with the letter "A" and have three syllables.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Not them, specifically, but about them. V can call out Reed for killing them.
• White-Collar Crime: All indications are, unlike the vast majority of Night City crooks, they are nonviolent hackers and thieves versus murderers.

Aurore Cassel

Voiced by:Leonie Schliesing (English)

• Affably Evil: Despite being a criminal netrunner working for an arms dealer, she's perfectly friendly and cheerful to her brother.
• Ambiguously Bi: She flirts up V regardless of their gender during the poker game in "I Know Your Face", but it's hard to say if she's geniuinely into V or if she's just being provocative. She does seem to be genuinely attracted to Hansen when she talks to Aymeric privately, so she seems to be at least attracted to men.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Aurore is confused why Kurt Hansen doesn't use his military muscle to turn Dogtown into the huge resort that it almost was under Militech, going legit and making billions of Eddies.
• The Fashionista: Her intel includes the information that she's very interested in fashion and she loves Kerry Eurodyne's style especially. When impersonating her, V can ask Kurt to get her in contact with Kerry's tailor.
• Ms. Fanservice: Extremely beautiful NPC with a short pixie, flattering dress, and stunning eyes.
• The Tease: Flirts heavily with V but is just having fun and tells her brother they have no interest in sleeping with them.

Aymeric Cassel

Voiced by:André Refig (English)

• Big Brother Instinct: He's very protective of his sister, Aurore. It doesn't help in the end.
• Cool Cars: Likes collecting vintage ones and once attempted to buy Johnny's Porsche, a car model dating back from before the Time of the Red.
• Hidden Depths: The dossier the FIA have on him reveals that Aymeric has a passion for collecting classic cars. He even tried to purchase Johnny's Porsche from Grayson, but the latter backed out of the auction at the last minute.
• Only in It for the Money: Unlike his sister, he states that Hansen is fine as a warlord and shouldn't care about being legit or not as long as he's rich.
• Properly Paranoid: Is very suspicious of V. With good reason in the end.
• Straight Edge Evil: His file claims that he treats his body like a temple and doesn't use any abusive substances. He will also cross absolutely all moral lines for money.

Aguilar Nubiola

Aguilar Nubiola

A legendary Cuban assassin, representing a cartel which backs Kurt Hansen. It is said that "Every time someone in Havana lights a cigar, somewhere in the world Aguilar kills someone." V impersonates them to influence Dogtown politics.

---

• Affluent Ascetic: The Mancinella, their personal revolver, is a Darra Polytechnic DR5 Nova, a cheap-and-cheerful pistol known (like most of Darra's weaponry) for its poor material quality and dodgy handling. The fact that one of the world's most legendary assassins invested so much time and effort into using and customising a budget hand cannon that it became an instantly-recognisable part of their legend says a lot about Aguilar as a person.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: A legendary assassin in a very sharp suit and a Fedora of Asskicking.
• Black Eyes of Evil: They have this and it further enforces their terrifying persona.
• Boom, Headshot!: Their combat specialty. You can get in on this by blowing the head off of Jago's personal muscle when he gets in your face, which completely crushes any resistance Jago has to you.
• The Dreaded: Think John Wick, but Cuban. Aside from some Voodoo Boyz Gangoons (who historically care little for outsiders anyways), pretty much everyone who sees Aguilar coming their way practically shits themselves.
  Guest: [Upon seeing "Aguilar"] Oh shit, time to go. Don't ask why.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: Aguilar never actually sets foot within Dogtown; every line from them comes from V's mouth, helped along by the behavioural data supplied by Mr. Hands and cloaking previously used for impersonating the Cassel twins. They do text V a few days later and suggest finding out how the impersonation measures up to the real thing, suggesting they did not appreciate being impersonated.
• Named Weapons: V gets to use their unique revolver called Mancinella. It's customized to be suppressed and poisons enemies on headshots (assuming they even survive the headshot). Just pulling it out makes everyone petrified.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Aguilar's gender depends on whether V is male or female. Fittingly, Aguilar is a very gender-neutral name as it is simply eagle in Spanish.

Nele Springer

Nele Springer

Voiced by:

A member of the Crimson Harvest terrorist organization, which targets Biotechnica facilities in retribution for their poisoning of farmland to force farmers like Nele's family to sell their land.

---

• The Atoner: While she despises Biotechnica still, Nele believes Crimson Harvest has gone too far in its tactics and radicals are overtaking the organization without care for civilian casualties. Having carried out one such attack that left dozens of innocents dead, Nele is desperate to stop any more such attacks.
• Eco-Terrorist: Acted as one on behalf of Crimson Harvest, deliberately targeting Biotechnica plants in revenge for them polluting farmland.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Zigzagged— she did still belong to a terrorist organization, after all. But it's clear from Nele's explanation that she joined up with Crimson Harvest for noble reasons and feels immense guilt that her actions caused the death of several dozen innocents as collateral, hence her hiring V as a saboteur.
• Uncertain Doom: Should V decide to protect her from the Biotechnica goons sent to apprehend her, they'll later get a call from her to meet up in Dogtown which turns out to be an ambush set up by a team of mercs. Messages found on the mercs' bodies reveal that they were sent by Biotechnica to assassinate V and that their information was obtained from Nele's contact list. What happened to Nele herself is ultimately never revealed.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Not that she can actually hear Johnny, but no doubt she would have this reaction to his words. He's extremely sore at her for "growing a conscience" because that kind of wishy-washyness prevented true revolution from happening, but he changes his tune to approval when it turns out she did in fact wind up killing people in the past. "You could have been a real pro," he says.

The Cynosure Prototype *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

The Erebus/Militech Canto Mk.6

Voiced by:

For those unafraid to pry open forbidden pathways...

"You seek the key to a door that does not exist. Typical of your kind."

"To eliminate your kind is effortless. Let us not make the same mistake."

A prototype SMG/Cyberdeck that is secretly powered a Rogue AI from beyond the Blackwall. This unholy iconic weapon can be built from secret schematics and components recovered from Project Cynosure, which can only be accessed if V decides to side with Solomon Reed against Songbird during the Firestarter mission. Its mere existence is an affront to international humanitarian law and will likely earn V the ire of NetWatch if they so much as catch the merc with it in their possession. But considering what this thing can do? NetWatch is going to be the least of V's worries when it comes to toting this Talking Weapon around.

---

• Abnormal Ammo: The Erebus fires specialized projectiles that uses artificial intelligence to hack the combat cyberware of its targets without the need of a cyberdeck, crippling their abilities or outright killing them with the dark energies of the Blackwall itself.
• Affably Evil: Zigzagged. When a Blackwall AI first contacts you after you have the schematics for the Canto Mk.6 and Erebus, it comes off as being fairly polite and encourages you to use your newfound weapon of destruction (if only because doing so enhances their agenda). The AI installed in the prototype, however, is a lot less amicable and makes no secret of its contempt for humanity.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Canto cyberdeck is one of the few that comes with a quichack pre-installed and said quickhack is a One-Hit Kill that can spread to other unfortunate victims. Unfortunately, the cyberdeck itself is far from impressive. In comparison to other Iconic cyberdecks, including fully upgraded Tier 5 ones, the Canto has significantly less RAM and has the same number of quickhack slots as a Tier 1 cyberdeck. Not helping is the obscene cost of "Blackwall Gateway" and how it still costs RAM to spread. Unless you have a specialized Netrunning build that revolves around Copy-Past and Overclock, the Canto's cons outweigh the pros.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Rogue AI powering both devices has a very sardonic personality, mocking the enemies V slays with it as "depressingly easy" to kill while making the occasional snide remark towards V themselves.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Both the Erebus and the Canto are essentially acting as containers for the closest thing the Cyberpunk world has to a malicious Eldritch Abomination. But when V first takes notice that their new toy can talk, they're not even fazed in the slightest.
  V: Well, well, another chatty construct. Guess you'll have to get in line.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • The Erebus is one to Skippy from the base game. Both are powerful guns that host a sentient artificial intelligence construct that radically enhances their respective weapon's killing potential. But where as Skippy had an eccentric personality and engaged in affable banter with V, Erebus is a Psycho Prototype that routinely speaks about how Humans Are Flawed and are doomed to die in the inevitable Robot War if the Blackwall falls.
  Erebus: [After finishing off an enemy] The same fate awaits your entire species.
  • The Rogue AI inside of the Erebus and the Canto is also one to Delamain. Both are sentient digital entities from beyond the Blackwall. Yet while Delamain is genuinely empathetic, personable and strong proof that not all AI are malicious, the Rogue AI is much more contemptuous of humanity and serves as an unnerving reminder of why the Blackwall exists in the first place.
• Evil Weapon: The Sci-Fi equivalents. Both are sapient weapons haunted by eldritch A.I.s, and are strongly implied to be uploading the engrams of their victims beyond the Blackwall upon death.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Although the Canto Mk.6 is Awesome, but Impractical, its disadvantages tie into its in-game lore. The cyberdeck houses a Blackwall AI, and as shown with Songbird, the AIs are not friendly in the least. The necessity for Overlock (an Intelligence perk that sacrifices HP in exchange for more RAM for quickhacks) means you are literally sacrificing your health to kill your enemies in the most brutal and horrible manner possible, something the Blackwall AI is all too happy to do and exploit.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Erebus is one of the most powerful weapons in the entire Phantom Liberty expansion. Its a "Power" type SMG that boasts a magazine size of 50 rounds with each Trick Bullet fired spliting into six seprate projectiles, has an iconic modifier that increases its base damage by 20%, and has a unique special ability that has a guaranteed chance to upload the "Blackwall Gateway" quickhack to any enemy below 33% Health, instantly killing them. It also has a 5% chance to upload the Cyberware Malfunction quickhack at any Health percentage on top of everything else.
• Meaningful Name: The SMG is named after the Greek personification of darkness and the offspring of Chaos while the Cyberdeck is named in refrence to the sixth canto of The Divine Comedy, where Dante descends into Inferno’s third circle which is guarded by the three-headed Cerberus.
• Simple, yet Awesome: This is the primary reason why the Erebus is considered The Dreaded in-universe. Unlike the Canto, which would require its user to be both a proficient netrunner and willing to risk their own personal health in order to use the cyberdeck to its fullest potential, the Erebus is terrifyingly simple for any gonk to use by virtue of being a conventional firearm in a comfortably small form factor with a deceptively large magazine size. Wanna wipe out an entire battalion of chromed-out Super Soldiers by drowning them with soul-devouring quickhacks just like Songbird? All you need to do is point and pull the trigger...
• Talking Weapon: The Rogue AI inside of the Erebus and the Canto will occasionally talk directly to V while its in use, but the Erebus notably has the most voicelines of the two devices. V dismisses them as just another "chatty construct" when it not-so-subtly threatens them and tells it to get in line.
• Urban Legends: The database entry for the Canto cyberdeck states that it is considered a myth by most netrunners, thanks to the fact that all-too-often models showing up in illegal auctions were in fact modified versions of pre-existing Militech decks...though experts believe that its components exist, just separated.
• Villain Takes an Interest: The true reason why V is even holding this accursed thing to begin with. Through a hidden conversation with Alt after Phantom Liberty's completion, she'll explain that the Rogue A.I.s lurking behind the Blackwall wish to manifest themselves into realspace by hijacking the psyches of potential human host bodies. But because the technology of the era is still too rudimentary for them to "open the floodgates" and start snatching bodies en masse, the A.I.s have no choice but to rely on human proxies to achieve their agenda by helping them expedite Humanity's march towards The Singularity. For this reason, they rely on V, who's shown to not only be exceedingly crafty, but also an expert in how to kill people.
  Alt: In colliding with your reality, their infinite permutability would grant them their desired tangible form. Had you let them slip through, they would have become your psyche. Become you. Fortunately, your reality's technology is too rudimentary to let open the floodgates. In limiting you, it limits them, keeps them at bay. Though this will not last. You will hasten this change, for you have something that belongs to them. A deadly weapon to you. A backdoor to the future for them...

---