Maelstrom: the Chrome-Obsessed Gang of Cyberpunk 2077

Maelstrom is a gang in Night City defined by one obsession: replacing flesh with chrome. Members load themselves with so much cyberware that many sit on the edge of cyberpsychosis, and they mix that with occult tattoos and creepy rituals. In 2077 they hold the Northside Industrial District in Watson and run a business in drugs, smuggling and black market tech, which makes them one of the first gangs V crosses in Cyberpunk 2077. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Maelstrom's beginnings in Cyberpunk 2020#

The gang was created for the tabletop game. In the Night City sourcebook, Maelstrom is a combat gang started by Hammer, a fighter who'd been kicked out of another gang for breaking its code. Maelstrom had no code at all. Its members wore black leather and chrome chains, showed off their implants, and about a third of them were registered cyberpsychos. The rest weren't far behind. (Night City sourcebook)

In 2020 the gang worked out of a former department store near the docks in Old Downtown, running protection rackets and small-time crime to pay for more cyberware and combat drugs. Its great enemy was the Inquisitors, a gang that hated cyberware, and the two fought whenever they met. (Night City sourcebook)

Maelstrom after the 2023 bombing#

The Fourth Corporate War nearly ended the gang. When a nuke went off in Arasaka Tower in 2023, the blast and fires tore through Maelstrom's turf, and many of its heavily chromed members died. The survivors held on, took over the ruined hotel that housed the Totentanz, and rebuilt by absorbing what was left of other high-chrome gangs. (Danger Gal Dossier)

By the 2040s Maelstrom was scavenging cyberware and gear from the irradiated Hot Zone at the heart of the old city and trading it to ripperdocs and anyone else who'd pay. It still looked like chaos from the outside, which suited its leaders fine. (Danger Gal Dossier)

Maelstrom in Cyberpunk 2077#

By 2077 Maelstrom is a serious criminal outfit in a mad-looking shell. Nobody joins without major cyberware work that makes them look more machine than human, and the gang's belief that metal is better than meat sits alongside a near-religious reverence for its rituals. It runs smuggling, black market tech and drugs, does contract killings in grotesque ways, and is rumoured to deal in brutal black market braindances. Its home turf is Northside in Watson, but its reach runs further south. (Cyberpunk 2077; The World of Cyberpunk 2077)

The Totentanz is still the gang's showpiece: a club where other gangers come to drink, listen to heavy music and fight, as long as they follow Maelstrom's rules. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The Pickup: Royce, Brick and the Flathead#

Maelstrom's big moment in the story comes early. In The Pickup, fixer Dexter DeShawn sends V and Jackie Welles to buy back a Flathead, a Militech spider bot that Maelstrom stole and that Dex needs for the heist on Yorinobu Arasaka. The gang is in turmoil. Royce has just overthrown the old boss, Brick, and locked him up, and Royce is twitchy and dangerous. His lieutenant Dum Dum is the one who talks to V. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Before the meeting, Militech agent Meredith Stout offers V a credchip to pay with. The catch is that it carries a virus. From there the player chooses. If V never met Stout and pays with V's own money, the deal goes through peacefully. If V did meet her, a clean payment (V's own money, the chip with its virus removed, or, for a Corpo V, the chip with a warning to Royce) is followed by a Militech raid, and V fights it off alongside Maelstrom. Paying with the infected chip, or pulling a gun on the gang, means fighting Maelstrom instead, with Royce as the last fight. Brick can be found and freed, but he only takes the gang back if Royce is dead. Who lives, and how Maelstrom treats V afterwards, depends on those choices. (Cyberpunk 2077)

How Maelstrom differs from Night City's other gangs#

Most of Night City's gangs are built on family, money or territory. Maelstrom is built on a philosophy. Its members see the human body as weak and want to leave it behind, and they don't fear cyberpsychosis the way everyone else does. That puts them at odds with the Tyger Claws, who share Watson with them, and with the NCPD and MaxTac, who end up cleaning up after members who tip over the edge. (Cyberpunk 2077)

For a side-by-side look at every major crew, from the Valentinos to the Voodoo Boys, see our guide to Cyberpunk's gangs. (Cyberpunk 2077)