MaxTac: Night City's Cyberpsycho Squad Explained
The short version
MaxTac (Maximum Force Tactical Division) is the Night City police unit that kills or captures cyberpsychos. It is the setting's answer to what happens when someone with too much chrome stops being a person.
On this page
What MaxTac does#
MaxTac is an NCPD rapid-response squad built to deal with armed, heavily cybered people who have gone cyberpsychotic. The 2077 database entry calls it an elite special-ops division with one aim: eliminate cyberpsychos. It adds that those not killed outright go to Los Padres, a prison built to hold them.
Officers are chosen for fitness and are themselves heavily chromed, so many sit on watch lists of their own. Some members are former cyberpsychos who were captured and reconditioned. Rumor in the 2077 entry says this is how the division recruits. Hiring the thing you hunt is efficient, if you ignore the ethics.
History in the tabletop timeline#
The US government started building cyberpsycho-hunting units in the 2000s. Night City's version, known as MaxTac or the Cyborg Suppression Unit, ran out of the Municipal Criminal Justice Complex.
In the 2020 timeline, the unit takes in a captured cyberpsycho named Ares in 2010 after a firefight that cost over thirty lives, and makes him its commander. By the 2040s, in the RED era, MaxTac was an independent department with contracts across Night City under Max Hammerman. It returned to the NCPD at some point after that.
MaxTac in Edgerunners#
The first episode of Edgerunners opens on MaxTac. A cyberpsychotic NUSA Lt. Col. named James Norris kills a cop and activates his Sandevistan, and MaxTac manages to hack him and neutralize him. Within minutes you know what the show thinks chrome costs.
MaxTac also appears in Edgerunners 2.
MaxTac in Cyberpunk 2077#
In the base game you meet MaxTac mostly as a threat described by other characters. Jackie, in the mission The Rescue, calls them the NCPD's apex predators who roll in when things get out of hand. Take him at his word and keep your heat low.
Spoilers MaxTac in Phantom Liberty
In the Phantom Liberty plot, Songbird falls into cyberpsychosis, sets off a cyberpsycho alert and is captured by MaxTac. V and Reed then attack the convoy holding her. A Militech Falcon Sandevistan can be earned in a Phantom Liberty mission if you ask Carol Emeka to help fight MaxTac.
Fixer's notes#
Opinion: MaxTac works as horror because it is not a villain. It is the setting's honest answer to a problem it created, and the 2077 entry's last line, that the line between them and the psychos is a fading blur, is the point.
At the table, treat MaxTac as a consequence rather than an encounter. In RED the unit is independent, which is a different tone from the 2077 city-police version. Related reading: cyberpsychosis and Militech, whose weapons and vehicles MaxTac uses.
Explore#
Questions people ask#
What does MaxTac stand for?
Maximum Force Tactical Division. It is an NCPD rapid-response squad built to deal with armed, heavily augmented people who have gone cyberpsychotic.
What happens to people MaxTac captures?
The Cyberpunk 2077 database entry says those not killed outright go to Los Padres, a prison built to hold cyberpsychos.
Is MaxTac in Edgerunners?
Yes. The first episode of Edgerunners opens on MaxTac neutralizing a cyberpsychotic Lt. Col. named James Norris, and it also appears in Edgerunners 2.
Is MaxTac in Cyberpunk 2077?
Yes. Jackie calls them the NCPD's apex predators in The Rescue, they are the response when your wanted level maxes out, and they get more screen time in Phantom Liberty.
Are MaxTac members cyberpsychos?
Officers are heavily chromed themselves, and the 2077 entry carries a rumor that some are former cyberpsychos who were captured and reconditioned. Treat it as a rumor.