Night City Districts: Watson, Westbrook, City Center, Heywood, Santo Domingo, Pacifica and Every Sub-district

How the city is laid out#

Night City sits on the Pacific coast of central California, about four to six hours from San Francisco and Los Angeles by road. The desert Badlands surround it. The city was planned by Richard Night as Coronado City, divided into neighborhoods with their own architectural themes.

Think of it as a map with two moods: the neighborhoods that want your money and the ones that want your cyberware. History is on the Night City page, the walled Combat Zone is covered at Dogtown, turf wars are in the gang guide, and the companies behind the towers are in the megacorp guide.

Watson#

North of the center. Watson is one of the poorest districts, with abandoned factories and a gang war between Maelstrom and the Tyger Claws. V starts the game here. Come for the gigs, leave before the factories get ideas.

• Little China: Vibe: crowded high-rises full of Asian immigrants, once planned as a second City Center. Runs: Tyger Claws. Landmarks: the Afterlife, the old Med Center, Viktor's Clinic, Megabuilding H10 (V's apartment). Local take: the Afterlife is the reason to come, the side streets are the reason to keep your hand near your gun.
• Kabuki: Vibe: narrow alleys that become a night bazaar for implants, organs and steroids. It was once the pride of Japanese medical corporations and is now very poor. Runs: Tyger Claws, with Maelstrom, the Mox and Scavengers also around. Landmarks: Lizzie's Bar, the Mox's base. Local take: great place to buy chrome, bad place to ask where it came from.
• Northside Industrial District: Vibe: derelict factories and working-class apartment blocks, with a few new blocks hiding the decay. Runs: Maelstrom. Landmarks: Totentanz, Northside Docks, Ryder's Clinic. Local take: Maelstrom's backyard. Don't loiter.
• Arasaka Waterfront: Vibe: a fenced-off corporate port. Automated robots sort shipments for Arasaka's warehouses and outposts. Runs: Arasaka. Local take: the robots are not friendly. You have no reason to be here.

Westbrook#

The east side of the city and the best place to live and party. Celebrities and executives live here, and the bars know it. A part of it near City Center was heavily damaged in the 2023 nuclear blast and later rebuilt by Asian corporations.

• Japantown: Vibe: tourists by day, hostess clubs and love hotels by night. The yakuza families of Northern California use it as a base. Runs: Tyger Claws, at night. Landmarks: Cherry Blossom Market, Jig-Jig Street, a Shinto temple. Local take: the best nightlife in the city, at the Tyger Claws' price.
• Charter Hill: Vibe: new, well-kept corporate housing, popular with upper-class citizens. Mid-level corpos live here and dream about North Oak. Gangs listed: 6th Street, Tyger Claws, Scavengers. Landmarks: Kiroshi Campus, the Dynalar Complex, a Tyger Claws casino. Local take: tidy, polite, and everyone is pretending they live in North Oak.
• North Oak: Vibe: the newest, most exclusive residential area, free of the poverty and gangs that bother the rest of the city. Built where refugee camps stood after the 2023 blast. Private security forces patrol it. Landmarks: the Arasaka Estate, North Oak Casino and Country Club, Villa Eurodyne.

City Center#

The central business district and the most fortified part of the city. It was a battlefield in the Fourth Corporate War and ground zero for the 2023 blast. Bring a good suit or the guards will notice.

• Corpo Plaza: Vibe: neopostmodern and neomilitaristic towers built after the 2023 blast. Runs: the megacorps. Landmarks: Arasaka Tower, the Militech offices, Petrochem Tower, the Biotechnica and Kang Tao buildings, the Arasaka Memorial. Local take: spectacular, and every tower has an opinion about you.
• Downtown: Vibe: once called Little Europe, rebuilt along Western European lines after the Fourth Corporate War, then reshaped by budget limits. Landmarks: Network 54 offices, Night Corp headquarters, Jinguji, Electric Orgasm.

Heywood#

The biggest bedroom in Night City, in the locals' words, housing more people than any other district. Parks and glass towers in the north, slum blocks in the south. Valentinos and 6th Street fight over it, one block at a time.

• Vista del Rey: Vibe: the poorest Heywood sub-district, run-down apartment blocks and graffiti. Runs: Valentinos, with 6th Street pushing in. Landmarks: Delamain Corp headquarters, La Catrina, Mercado Sonora. Local take: friendlier than it looks if you respect the Valentinos.
• The Glen: Vibe: planned as the new seat of government. Clean and rich in the north, rougher a few blocks south. Runs: Valentinos and 6th Street. Landmarks: City Hall, Reconciliation Park, an NCPD precinct, Embers. Local take: walk north for the lobby, south for the real Glen.
• Wellsprings: Vibe: the western Heywood neighborhoods, relatively safe near City Center, with a small middle class. Runs: Valentinos, with 6th Street and Animals also noted. Landmarks: Parque del Mar, Palms View Plaza, the water treatment facility.

Santo Domingo#

One of the oldest districts, built from old Heywood. It avoided major damage in the Fourth Corporate War, became a refugee camp, and is now a testing ground for industrial projects. Veterans started 6th Street here, and the neighbors still salute.

• Arroyo: Vibe: always under construction, with an old power plant, robot factories, a logistics center and a huge junkyard. Runs: 6th Street, which controls abandoned factories and heavy equipment storage. Landmarks: Arasaka Industrial Park, Kendachi Factory, Night City Prison, Red Dirt. Local take: wrong turns end at a junkyard or a prison.
• Rancho Coronado: Vibe: a self-contained suburb of identical mid-century-style houses, built by the Arroyo corporations as an American dream for their workers. Neglect shows. Runs: 6th Street, Animals and Valentinos are all noted here. Landmarks: Coronado Dam, Tripple Extreme Gym.

Pacifica#

Planned as a paradise for the wealthy with Militech security, then wrecked when the Unification War killed the resort project. By 2077 it is a lawless Combat Zone, no longer part of Night City's administrative boundaries. Voodoo Boys, Animals and Scavengers are the main names. Go in with a reason or don't go.

• Coastview: Vibe: favelas built around the unfinished resort. Entry takes a local's okay. Runs: Voodoo Boys, with Animals, BARGHEST and Scavengers also noted. Landmarks: Batty's Hotel, Grand Imperial Mall, Pacifica Pier, Dogtown Gates.
• West Wind Estate: Vibe: another favela area from the abandoned resort. Runs: Voodoo Boys, Animals and Scavengers. Landmarks: West Wind Apartments, Hotel Pistis Sophia, the unfinished NCART station.
• Dogtown: Vibe: a walled Combat Zone, once called Serenisands. Runs: BARGHEST under Colonel Kurt Hansen, with Voodoo Boys and Scavengers also present. Landmarks: the Black Sapphire, the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Eden Plaza. Added in Phantom Liberty. Local take: the one place in town where a militia is the landlord. See Dogtown.

Outside the districts#

Two places beyond the six districts.

• Badlands: Vibe: the dry California scrub that surrounds Night City. Oil fields in the north, toxic wasteland in the east, desert in the south. Biotechnica protein farms and the Jackson Plains power plant make the south less harsh. Runs: nomads, including the Aldecaldos and the Wraiths. Local take: pick your nomads before you pick your road.
• Morro Rock: Vibe: an island in Del Coronado Bay off City Center, big enough for a spaceport and an airport. Reached by a bridge from City Center. Good views, popular with tourists. Landmarks: the spaceport and airport.

Fixer's notes#

Opinion: learn the border, not the list. Watson's rough edge meets Westbrook's money, and the sharpest contrast in the game is Corpo Plaza next to Heywood's south.

Common mix-up: Pacifica and Dogtown are not the same. Dogtown is a sub-district inside Pacifica, and Pacifica is outside city administration.

Next stop: Night City for history, Night City gangs for who is shooting at whom, the Afterlife for the best-known door in Watson.

Gang by gang: Tyger Claws, Valentinos, 6th Street, Animals, Voodoo Boys, The Mox, Scavengers and Maelstrom each have a full page.