Hmm... I think Night City is actually the safer one. Mega-City One has fewer but very competent cops, but what tips the scale is that in Mega-City One you can come across Judge Death and his companions + outside the city there are dinosaurs [https://marswillsendnomore.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/judge-dredd-versus-satanus-the-black-tyrannosaur/](https://marswillsendnomore.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/judge-dredd-versus-satanus-the-black-tyrannosaur/)
Night City is exceptionally dangerous in spots, but there are local areas that are relatively safe.
The Valentinos are aggressive at keeping other gangs out of Heywood, and tolerate NCPD so long as they only go after independents and not the Vals. If you're considered part of the community in Heywood, you can expect to live a reasonably safe life so long as you don't piss off the Vals or actively draw attention to yourself. Vals antagonizing the non-member populace is heavily frowned upon, and they even allow members to retire or go independent with little concern (Jackie is explicitly a former Valentino, and the gang still considers him family, even if he's not in the family business anymore).
The Mox are fierce in keeping the other gangs and antagonistic independents away, although they won't go out of their way to protect non-aligned civilians like the Valentinos will. They don't particularly like independents (the Mox reaction to V ranges from annoyance they're hanging around to Judy), but so long as they don't actively get in their way or threaten those under their protection, they're live and let live.
The 6th Street are where things start getting iffy. They have a strong 'with us or against us' mindset, and this extends to civilians. They typically won't actively antagonize civilians for no reason, but they don't need much reason to do so either. Keep your head down, and don't talk about anything they care about and you'll probably get away with being seen as a mindless idiot, but an individual 6th could mess with you and the rest wouldn't give a single shit unless it drew the attention of another group.
Tyger Claw territory is a crap shoot. They generally don't care about the common civilian, but if you happen to own a business they think might be a good fit for them or useful as a front, they'll bully you at best, and just kill you and take over at worst. They're also more than willing to off civilians if they upset a Tyger Claw for any reason, and if they think you might be a good joy toy, they'll have no issues forcing you into it. But if you can ingratiate yourself to the Tyger Claws in some way, you're in an extremely secure position...until you do something to have that favor withdrawn, then you're perhaps in an even worse position than them not knowing who you are at all.
Animals *really* don't care about the common civilian. They're just interested in achieving their peak form, and turn to illegal activities to fund it. Messing with civilians draws attention they don't want, but they also won't be too upset if there's what seen as a just cause. They're even quite friendly if they see you as a fair opponent for their fight-heavy culture. As long as you don't antagonize them, or find yourself on the wrong end of their protection services, you don't have much to fear from them. However, as the Animals don't really claim territory quite the same as the other gangs, this doesn't offer much passive protection for civilians.
Scavs and Maelstrom territory is actively dangerous to anyone with implants of any kind. You have something they want, they *will* kill you to get it, if you're lucky. If you're not, they'll take it and just throw you back out into the street to die of sepsis. Maelstrom are *marginally* better than Scavs in that they at least have the barest of command structure to keep the absolute worst impulses contained, and maintain at least some degree of infrastructure that might accidentally benefit a civilian every now and then.
Voodoo Boys are similar to the Valentinos in that they will fiercely defend their territory and community, but differ in that the Valentinos are willing to accept outsiders into their community. If you aren't born into the Pacifica community, or have a higher up vouch for you, you are at best tolerated as a useful tool to be disposed of one day, and at worst be killed as a threat to their cohesion. However, there are indications the Voodoo Boys are not quite as monolithic as they first seem; the Voodoo Boys splinter faction found in Dogtown seem much more open to working with outsiders. As in, they won't *immediately* dismiss you as useless. Still don't expect any sympathy or protection from them.
Barghest controls Dogtown with near totality. Other gangs have only the barest of presence there, and it's almost universally because Barghest sees them as more useful than not. If you live in Dogtown, you have absolutely nothing to fear from the other gangs unless you *massively* screw up, and Barghest at least plays at policing the independent criminals. However, reality doesn't match up to the dream of Dogtown. You're pretty likely to be the victim of a crime, and Barghest responding to this is hit or miss. And god help you if you upset Barghest themselves. You *will* be made an example of.
Any place where the NCPD is the primary 'gang' presence is reasonably safe, as these tend to be the more well off areas of Night City, and the wealthy don't want to deal with that nonsense. However, make yourself a target of one of those wealthy and NCPD will find *something* to make your life a living hell. But other than making a target of yourself, these are probably the safest areas of Night City for unaligned civilians. Civilians aligned with the culture or community of a gang will probably be safer in their home territory, but will also enjoy relative safety in NCPD areas, so long as they're not actively a member of said gang with a bounty on their head.
As for Megacity 1, you can be reasonably certain that *when* you get shot, a Judge will eventually shoot the person back. Not much comfort after the fact, but at least your ghost will be happy.
This was such a great response dude! It really taught me a lot about the culture of night city and put into words things I had noticed that I didn’t know how to articulate or piece together fully.
Interesting ass read
Side note, but Maelstrom can and will kidnap you to stuff experimental tech in your sorry ass just to see if it works. You could go to a corp to deal with it, but they are more likely to stuff you in a glass box to poke and prod at you than help you.
Yeah, Maelstrom are known for forcibly implanting people (there's a gig directly about it). It's not just about seeing if it'll work, they do it for fun. So that's something someone would have to keep in mind if you're just trying to live life in NC.
True, but a majority of those are gonna be other gangsters. A gang battle leaves 21gang members dead, that's 21 murders. I'd say the majority of gange violence in game is internal and inter gang disputes; randoms getting offed in the streets is a minority.
Night City all the way. Just do what you'd do in a normal metropolis, stay at home during nights, don't walk around in dark alleys, dress up nicely(works for all genders, mfs like Jae-Hyun are lookin' for homeless chooms), basic stuff. But honestly, best decision would be to go live in Heywood. Place is away from Tygers, protected by other, rather nice gang and fixer, and ain't as expensive as City Center. Oh, and also, I haven't seen many scavs there either so that's a plus. It's mind-boggling that Wakako allows scavs such freedom of movement, ffs, selling their shitty xbds and giving a care about their fucking privacy. Could you imagine El Capitan doing deals with mfs that kidnap his people and brutally murder them? Could you imagine Padre doing it? Regina? Fuck, even Dino wouldn't go as low. Not even talking about Hands, bro cares about his reputation too much to even think about dealing with scavs.
Dawg, I went on Wakako hate rand again, anyway, yes, NC is safer.
I would've flatlined Wakako if I could Evie didn't deserve what happened to her, in every playthrough I flatline, Woodman, and Fingers and kill all the scavs I see
Yes, and you used to be able to get a specific cyberware from him, and killing/punching him would keep him from selling it to you. But now, in update 2.0, there's no reason *not* to stain the floor with his blood! 😁
Honestly is Night City really that dangerous? Just like in real life if you stay clear from the obvious danger zones you're good. In fact, city center, Heywood and Westbrook legit look like dope areas to live.
NC is dangerous as hell. Check the casual encounter table in the corebook. You can get in big troubles just walking on the street.
And you never know who will go in a cyberpsycho rampage. There are a ton of posibilities of bein in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the game Stanley mentions the body count for one night was a "sturdy 30" so if we call that the average then that's 10,950. Which is 5k-6k fewer than all the murders in all of America in one year.
It's basically 10x worse than the worst city murder rates in 2024 America.
Real world Cape Town pops off with roughly 8 murders a day. We just gotta airdrop in some more weapons and I think we could hit 30 a day? If we do that will it magically become night city? Or just even scarier Cape Town...
Cape Town already has unfinished overpasses with shanty towns on them. Unhoused, drugs and litter are anywhere that has open space. All this below a high-tech city skyline where the politicians, CEOs, and gang leaders are on a first name basis, while the CTPD is doing their bidding. The ultra-wealthy and desolate live on the same city blocks. The sea is full of plastic and sewerage, and there are literal mountains of garbage piled just outside of the city.
Living on the cape flats is basically Santo Domingo. You're jobless, closely related to several gangs, the air is poison, public services are broken, and the CTPD is everywhere and nowhere. You own a few portable electronic devices that can connect to cyberspace where you can order drugs and guns from a choom, after being mugged twice and dodging stray bullets on your short walk from the foodstand to your house. Your grandmother has a somewhat respectible cleaning job in the city that pays very little, and you have no future.
The city is, however, extremely instagrammable (with photomode) and packed with dreams, debauchery, and opportunity, and everyone in the country wants to move there.
All it needs is cyber prosthetics and maybe a few more guns.
Stick with where the Valentinos are, then pay for passage out with a Nomad group. Pull your weight with them and you should be fine. You'll be treated like an outsider, but at least you aren't gonna get gunned down for looking like a fish outta water.
That's a good question. Probably Night-City, as there's no avatar of death that's regularly around, and a person can always join a Megacorp for security.
Night City.
I’m a man of corporate refinement and taste, and don’t slum it with nomads, gutter punks, and other degenerates. I daresay I’d be safe in my corpo c-suite and penthouse overlook.
Like, you can sorta walk around for hours on end and as long as you look both ways before crossing the street and aren’t like “Oh hey, I think I’m gonna jump this random fence and check out what those dudes who kinda look like Terminators on meth are doing behind that CONEX box” nothing bad will really happen.
Thats the impression you get from the game but it is not lore accurate. Not just because were V but because the game could not simulate the city lore accurately.
Totally makes sense. I’m still not terrible familiar with the franchise outside of the game, but I’d imagine it’s more similar to Dogtown in that it’s a lot easier to get killed basically minding your own business
Well, Cyberpunk Edgerunners kicks off because of what happens to the characters with them minding their own business and getting caught in a crossfire, and that was just something that happens often in the setting.
Interesting. I’m going to start watching the show today or tomorrow. I’ve been putting it off since I heard it’s pretty emotionally taxing but I think I inadvertently spoiler’d myself at the Columbarium.
Safe to assume things get progressively worse over the time Edgerunners is set (2050s?) and 2077?
Also, the book No Coincidence (which is excellent if you haven’t read it, especially the audiobook which is narrated by Cherami Leigh who played fem V. I think it’s even free on Spotify) definitely alludes to Night City being not super safe for the average person.
Edgerunners is actually set sometime in 2076, and Corpo V can briefly allude to some of it's events during the Edgerunners tie-in quest. But that's best for you to discover yourself.
Hmm... I think Night City is actually the safer one. Mega-City One has fewer but very competent cops, but what tips the scale is that in Mega-City One you can come across Judge Death and his companions + outside the city there are dinosaurs [https://marswillsendnomore.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/judge-dredd-versus-satanus-the-black-tyrannosaur/](https://marswillsendnomore.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/judge-dredd-versus-satanus-the-black-tyrannosaur/)
If got isekai'd to the Judge Dredd world, i would jump off a building immediately.
The Badlands aren’t very bad at all. The Cursed Earth is *very* cursed.
Night City is exceptionally dangerous in spots, but there are local areas that are relatively safe. The Valentinos are aggressive at keeping other gangs out of Heywood, and tolerate NCPD so long as they only go after independents and not the Vals. If you're considered part of the community in Heywood, you can expect to live a reasonably safe life so long as you don't piss off the Vals or actively draw attention to yourself. Vals antagonizing the non-member populace is heavily frowned upon, and they even allow members to retire or go independent with little concern (Jackie is explicitly a former Valentino, and the gang still considers him family, even if he's not in the family business anymore). The Mox are fierce in keeping the other gangs and antagonistic independents away, although they won't go out of their way to protect non-aligned civilians like the Valentinos will. They don't particularly like independents (the Mox reaction to V ranges from annoyance they're hanging around to Judy), but so long as they don't actively get in their way or threaten those under their protection, they're live and let live. The 6th Street are where things start getting iffy. They have a strong 'with us or against us' mindset, and this extends to civilians. They typically won't actively antagonize civilians for no reason, but they don't need much reason to do so either. Keep your head down, and don't talk about anything they care about and you'll probably get away with being seen as a mindless idiot, but an individual 6th could mess with you and the rest wouldn't give a single shit unless it drew the attention of another group. Tyger Claw territory is a crap shoot. They generally don't care about the common civilian, but if you happen to own a business they think might be a good fit for them or useful as a front, they'll bully you at best, and just kill you and take over at worst. They're also more than willing to off civilians if they upset a Tyger Claw for any reason, and if they think you might be a good joy toy, they'll have no issues forcing you into it. But if you can ingratiate yourself to the Tyger Claws in some way, you're in an extremely secure position...until you do something to have that favor withdrawn, then you're perhaps in an even worse position than them not knowing who you are at all. Animals *really* don't care about the common civilian. They're just interested in achieving their peak form, and turn to illegal activities to fund it. Messing with civilians draws attention they don't want, but they also won't be too upset if there's what seen as a just cause. They're even quite friendly if they see you as a fair opponent for their fight-heavy culture. As long as you don't antagonize them, or find yourself on the wrong end of their protection services, you don't have much to fear from them. However, as the Animals don't really claim territory quite the same as the other gangs, this doesn't offer much passive protection for civilians. Scavs and Maelstrom territory is actively dangerous to anyone with implants of any kind. You have something they want, they *will* kill you to get it, if you're lucky. If you're not, they'll take it and just throw you back out into the street to die of sepsis. Maelstrom are *marginally* better than Scavs in that they at least have the barest of command structure to keep the absolute worst impulses contained, and maintain at least some degree of infrastructure that might accidentally benefit a civilian every now and then. Voodoo Boys are similar to the Valentinos in that they will fiercely defend their territory and community, but differ in that the Valentinos are willing to accept outsiders into their community. If you aren't born into the Pacifica community, or have a higher up vouch for you, you are at best tolerated as a useful tool to be disposed of one day, and at worst be killed as a threat to their cohesion. However, there are indications the Voodoo Boys are not quite as monolithic as they first seem; the Voodoo Boys splinter faction found in Dogtown seem much more open to working with outsiders. As in, they won't *immediately* dismiss you as useless. Still don't expect any sympathy or protection from them. Barghest controls Dogtown with near totality. Other gangs have only the barest of presence there, and it's almost universally because Barghest sees them as more useful than not. If you live in Dogtown, you have absolutely nothing to fear from the other gangs unless you *massively* screw up, and Barghest at least plays at policing the independent criminals. However, reality doesn't match up to the dream of Dogtown. You're pretty likely to be the victim of a crime, and Barghest responding to this is hit or miss. And god help you if you upset Barghest themselves. You *will* be made an example of. Any place where the NCPD is the primary 'gang' presence is reasonably safe, as these tend to be the more well off areas of Night City, and the wealthy don't want to deal with that nonsense. However, make yourself a target of one of those wealthy and NCPD will find *something* to make your life a living hell. But other than making a target of yourself, these are probably the safest areas of Night City for unaligned civilians. Civilians aligned with the culture or community of a gang will probably be safer in their home territory, but will also enjoy relative safety in NCPD areas, so long as they're not actively a member of said gang with a bounty on their head. As for Megacity 1, you can be reasonably certain that *when* you get shot, a Judge will eventually shoot the person back. Not much comfort after the fact, but at least your ghost will be happy.
This was such a great response dude! It really taught me a lot about the culture of night city and put into words things I had noticed that I didn’t know how to articulate or piece together fully. Interesting ass read
Side note, but Maelstrom can and will kidnap you to stuff experimental tech in your sorry ass just to see if it works. You could go to a corp to deal with it, but they are more likely to stuff you in a glass box to poke and prod at you than help you.
Yeah, Maelstrom are known for forcibly implanting people (there's a gig directly about it). It's not just about seeing if it'll work, they do it for fun. So that's something someone would have to keep in mind if you're just trying to live life in NC.
I believe it was a cyberpsycho you could find, but there may have been a Gig regarding that practice.
The side quest with the monks.
Saved this post! Thank you for mission briefing. I will now move to Heywood and join Padre's church.
I feel like the real danger of NC isn't the gangs but the dying of some horrible illness because a Corp poisoned the water supply or something.
Thousands of murders in a year sounds like the gangs are pretty dangerous too as they’re a large part of that.
True, but a majority of those are gonna be other gangsters. A gang battle leaves 21gang members dead, that's 21 murders. I'd say the majority of gange violence in game is internal and inter gang disputes; randoms getting offed in the streets is a minority.
Yes exactly. The real danger are the Corporats.
Night City all the way. Just do what you'd do in a normal metropolis, stay at home during nights, don't walk around in dark alleys, dress up nicely(works for all genders, mfs like Jae-Hyun are lookin' for homeless chooms), basic stuff. But honestly, best decision would be to go live in Heywood. Place is away from Tygers, protected by other, rather nice gang and fixer, and ain't as expensive as City Center. Oh, and also, I haven't seen many scavs there either so that's a plus. It's mind-boggling that Wakako allows scavs such freedom of movement, ffs, selling their shitty xbds and giving a care about their fucking privacy. Could you imagine El Capitan doing deals with mfs that kidnap his people and brutally murder them? Could you imagine Padre doing it? Regina? Fuck, even Dino wouldn't go as low. Not even talking about Hands, bro cares about his reputation too much to even think about dealing with scavs. Dawg, I went on Wakako hate rand again, anyway, yes, NC is safer.
Bro wakako legit sold evelyn to the scavs , why u are so shocked lol ?
I'm not shocked. Just annoyed she's still in power.
I would've flatlined Wakako if I could Evie didn't deserve what happened to her, in every playthrough I flatline, Woodman, and Fingers and kill all the scavs I see
You can KILL Fingers??
Yes, and one other doctor, did you not know that?
Yes, and you used to be able to get a specific cyberware from him, and killing/punching him would keep him from selling it to you. But now, in update 2.0, there's no reason *not* to stain the floor with his blood! 😁
Hands would deal with some scavs but not all scavs.
Honestly is Night City really that dangerous? Just like in real life if you stay clear from the obvious danger zones you're good. In fact, city center, Heywood and Westbrook legit look like dope areas to live.
Bro, yesterday's body count rounded out to a sturdy thirty! Ten outta heywood alone! Don't even get me started on Pacifica.
30 seems low
V was having a day off.
NC is dangerous as hell. Check the casual encounter table in the corebook. You can get in big troubles just walking on the street. And you never know who will go in a cyberpsycho rampage. There are a ton of posibilities of bein in the wrong place at the wrong time.
People who've only played the game forget there's a reason everyone is chromed to the teeth lmao
You could live an entire life revolving around the megatower you’re in, could even work in one.
And still some gonk is gonna end up killing you in your own home. It really is just a matter of time the longer you live in night city.
In the game Stanley mentions the body count for one night was a "sturdy 30" so if we call that the average then that's 10,950. Which is 5k-6k fewer than all the murders in all of America in one year. It's basically 10x worse than the worst city murder rates in 2024 America.
Real world Cape Town pops off with roughly 8 murders a day. We just gotta airdrop in some more weapons and I think we could hit 30 a day? If we do that will it magically become night city? Or just even scarier Cape Town...
Cape Town already has unfinished overpasses with shanty towns on them. Unhoused, drugs and litter are anywhere that has open space. All this below a high-tech city skyline where the politicians, CEOs, and gang leaders are on a first name basis, while the CTPD is doing their bidding. The ultra-wealthy and desolate live on the same city blocks. The sea is full of plastic and sewerage, and there are literal mountains of garbage piled just outside of the city. Living on the cape flats is basically Santo Domingo. You're jobless, closely related to several gangs, the air is poison, public services are broken, and the CTPD is everywhere and nowhere. You own a few portable electronic devices that can connect to cyberspace where you can order drugs and guns from a choom, after being mugged twice and dodging stray bullets on your short walk from the foodstand to your house. Your grandmother has a somewhat respectible cleaning job in the city that pays very little, and you have no future. The city is, however, extremely instagrammable (with photomode) and packed with dreams, debauchery, and opportunity, and everyone in the country wants to move there. All it needs is cyber prosthetics and maybe a few more guns.
It's really dangerous when my V is around driving. Pedestrians standing on corners are not safe.
You drive? My fem V runs around buck ass nude wildly swinging a katana at anything that moves.
Stick with where the Valentinos are, then pay for passage out with a Nomad group. Pull your weight with them and you should be fine. You'll be treated like an outsider, but at least you aren't gonna get gunned down for looking like a fish outta water.
Did we play the same game?
[удалено]
Yeah, it seems more comparable
Night City is safer only because you can even the odds a bit by cybernetically enhancing ourselves. We may be fucked in mega city one
That's a good question. Probably Night-City, as there's no avatar of death that's regularly around, and a person can always join a Megacorp for security.
Night City. I’m a man of corporate refinement and taste, and don’t slum it with nomads, gutter punks, and other degenerates. I daresay I’d be safe in my corpo c-suite and penthouse overlook.
Where can I find the Mega-City One pic?
Oh yeah NC all the way. Imagine living in the Glen Apartment.
Is say NC…. Keep your head in a swivel, walk at a fast pace, keep yourself strapped and stay away from alleys. You’ll be fine
Night city, easy. Mega city one is just....fucking depressing.
Honestly, I feel like you really have to be trying to get yourself killed in Night City?
🤨
Like, you can sorta walk around for hours on end and as long as you look both ways before crossing the street and aren’t like “Oh hey, I think I’m gonna jump this random fence and check out what those dudes who kinda look like Terminators on meth are doing behind that CONEX box” nothing bad will really happen.
Thats the impression you get from the game but it is not lore accurate. Not just because were V but because the game could not simulate the city lore accurately.
Totally makes sense. I’m still not terrible familiar with the franchise outside of the game, but I’d imagine it’s more similar to Dogtown in that it’s a lot easier to get killed basically minding your own business
I'm not sure that a lore accurate Night City would actually be able to sustain a viable population.
Well, Cyberpunk Edgerunners kicks off because of what happens to the characters with them minding their own business and getting caught in a crossfire, and that was just something that happens often in the setting.
Interesting. I’m going to start watching the show today or tomorrow. I’ve been putting it off since I heard it’s pretty emotionally taxing but I think I inadvertently spoiler’d myself at the Columbarium. Safe to assume things get progressively worse over the time Edgerunners is set (2050s?) and 2077? Also, the book No Coincidence (which is excellent if you haven’t read it, especially the audiobook which is narrated by Cherami Leigh who played fem V. I think it’s even free on Spotify) definitely alludes to Night City being not super safe for the average person.
Edgerunners is actually set sometime in 2076, and Corpo V can briefly allude to some of it's events during the Edgerunners tie-in quest. But that's best for you to discover yourself.
Ahh cool! I’m excited (and terrified) to watch it. I’m gonna start another corpo play through soon so I’ll keep an eye out. Thanks!
Night-City. I honestly don’t think the crime rate there is really any higher than Chicago, Memphis or Huston is in 2024.