Barghest: Kurt Hansen's Dogtown Militia in Phantom Liberty

Barghest is the militia that rules Dogtown, the walled-off corner of Pacifica where Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty takes place. It is Colonel Kurt Hansen's private army, his arms business and Dogtown's police force all in one. It started as a Militech combat unit and never went home. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Where Barghest came from#

Barghest was a Militech unit before it was a militia. Kurt Hansen, a young colonel with a career in covert operations, took command of the Barghest urban combat unit in 2067. When the Unification War reached its last stage, his men were sent to take a foothold in Night City and set up a base at the EBM Petrochem Stadium in Pacifica. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Then the attack was called off. Arasaka had come to the city's defence, and President Rosalind Myers chose peace over a wider war. Hansen was ordered to pull out in June 2070. He and his whole unit refused, kept the ground they held and kept their weapons. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

That patch of Pacifica became Dogtown. The game's database says no other group in Night City has carved out a whole district and kept the police out for so long. Only six soldiers from Hansen's original squad remain, and they sit at the top as his most trusted men. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Who joins Barghest#

Barghest grew by taking in people the rest of the city had dropped. The database lists veterans forgotten by the megacorps, mercenaries without contracts and gangers who had fallen out with their own crews. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Ordinary Night City residents at the end of their rope joined too. Hansen offered them a gun, a wage, medical care through his ripperdocs and no questions about their past, in exchange for total loyalty. For people at the bottom, that was a better offer than petty crime. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

It still runs like an army. Members hold ranks, Hansen is still "the Colonel", and soldiers follow written directives. Outsiders can rise if they are useful enough, even without a military past. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

How Barghest runs Dogtown#

Barghest pays for itself with war surplus. It held on to a huge stock of Militech hardware from the Unification War and sells weapons across the world, including through its own workshop, Hansen Armory, which turns out guns in Barghest yellow. It also runs a smuggling operation, with supply drops coming in by air and a guarded tunnel out of the district. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Hansen calls Barghest Dogtown's protectors, the force that keeps gang violence and the NCPD out. It isn't that tidy. The Voodoo Boys and scavengers still work inside the walls, sometimes as partners and sometimes as enemies, and traders in the stadium market pay registration fees despite Hansen's claim that Dogtown has no taxes. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

For players, Barghest replaces the police inside Dogtown. Commit crimes there and its red-armoured Prevention Unit comes after V instead of the NCPD, though a five-star rampage still brings MaxTac. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Its arsenal is a war's worth: Militech robots, armoured vehicles, aerodynes and even a Chimera war machine, plus an airship that patrols Dogtown's sky. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Barghest in Phantom Liberty#

The expansion opens with Barghest at work. President Myers' spaceplane comes down in Dogtown, and Barghest troops close in on the crash. Hansen had a secret deal with Songbird: she would deliver the president and he would give her access to a neural matrix his people had taken from an abandoned Militech bunker. He planned to double-cross her. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

V and FIA agent Solomon Reed spend much of the story working around Barghest. In You Know My Name, V gets inside Hansen's party at the Black Sapphire, his luxury club, where Dogtown's guests mingle with the Colonel himself. Later, V and Reed's ally Alex impersonate the netrunners Hansen hired to help Songbird with the matrix. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Hansen's end depends on V's choice in Firestarter:

• If V sides with Songbird, Alex, still disguised, kills Hansen while V and Songbird try to escape the stadium. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)
• If V sides with Reed, Songbird warns Hansen, he kills Alex, and V has to fight him. Even if V spares him, the fixer Mr. Hands later reports that someone finished him off. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

The Phantom Liberty story page covers the full plot, and Night City's gangs shows how Barghest compares to the rest. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Before Phantom Liberty#

CD Projekt Red introduced Hansen ahead of the expansion's launch with a dossier on its Phantom Liberty page. It describes him ruling Dogtown with an iron fist, a patch of land he carved out during the Unification War and holds with his loyal Barghest soldiers, and warns that his intellect makes him more dangerous than his guns. (Kurt Hansen dossier)