Voodoo Boys: the Netrunner Gang of Pacifica in Cyberpunk 2077

The Voodoo Boys are a gang of netrunners who control Pacifica, the abandoned resort district in the south of Night City, in 2077. They come out of the Haitian community that was brought in to build Pacifica and stayed when the money left. Outsiders know them for viruses that can fry a netrunner's brain. The gang itself cares about one thing above all: getting past the Blackwall to talk to the rogue AIs on the other side. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Where the Voodoo Boys came from#

The gang's story starts with the loss of Haiti. Climate disaster ruined the island in the 2060s, and many of its people ended up in Night City as labourers on the Pacifica resort project. When investors abandoned Pacifica during the Unification War, the Haitian workers refused to leave and moved into the unfinished hotels and malls. The Voodoo Boys rose as their protectors, fighting off eviction attempts and keeping the NCPD at arm's length. (The World of Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk 2077)

They didn't pick the name. Night City already had a gang called the Voodoo Boys back in the 2020s, a crowd of mostly white drug dealers around Night City University who wore fake "voodoo" trappings as a pose. Locals saw a Haitian gang in Pacifica and reused the old label. For the old gang the voodoo was a pose; for the new one it's deadly serious. (Night City sourcebook; The Official Digital Artbook of Cyberpunk 2077)

What the Voodoo Boys believe and how they make money#

Religion is serious business for them. Their take on vodou swaps the old idea of an afterlife for the Net's promise of digital life and all-knowing AIs, and their priests are elite netrunners. That faith is why they keep probing the Blackwall, the barrier NetWatch built to keep rogue AIs out of the usable Net. It's also why NetWatch has spent years trying, and failing, to wipe them out. (Cyberpunk 2077; The World of Cyberpunk 2077)

Day to day they behave more like other gangs. They hack corporate databanks, sell netrunning to whoever pays, and defend their turf in Pacifica, where they act as the community's leaders. Members dress for the work: cooling suits, neural ports, dreadlocks and tattoos. They're deeply suspicious of outsiders and hard to count, since they blend into Pacifica's wider Haitian population. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The Voodoo Boys in Cyberpunk 2077#

V gets drawn to them while looking for Alt Cunningham, the netrunner who built Soulkiller and who now lives as an AI beyond the Blackwall. They're also tied to the Relic heist through Evelyn Parker, who had her own dealings with them. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The route in runs through Placide, Brigitte's hard-nosed second. In the quest I Walk the Line he puts a chip in V's head and sends V into the Grand Imperial Mall, held by the Animals boostergang, to find a netrunner who has been watching the Voodoo Boys. That netrunner turns out to be Bryce Mosley of NetWatch, and he warns V that the gang plans a double-cross. V can take his deal, which removes Placide's virus but quietly plants a NetWatch tracker, or knock him out and keep faith with the gang. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Brigitte then shows her hand. In Transmission she takes V to the gang's hideout under Pacifica's old church and uses Johnny Silverhand's engram as bait to reach Alt through the Blackwall, because Alt is the one being who might lead the Voodoo Boys to the AIs. (Cyberpunk 2077)

How it ends depends on the earlier choice. If V sided with NetWatch, Alt senses the tracker and flatlines Brigitte and her netrunners to stop NetWatch, and V has to fight Placide and the rest of the gang to get out of the church. If V stayed loyal, Alt takes the Voodoo Boys' netrunners through the Blackwall, and Brigitte sends V on their way. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The Dogtown split in Phantom Liberty#

Not every Voodoo Boy follows Brigitte. In Phantom Liberty a breakaway faction under Wilky "Slider" LaGuerre lives in Dogtown, the walled sector of Pacifica run by Kurt Hansen and his Barghest militia. Slider split with Brigitte because he thought her plan to break the Blackwall was too dangerous. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

The Dogtown runners are the pragmatists of the family. They take bigger risks for bigger pay, sell their skills at Hansen's Stadium market and keep his guests' data hidden. The deal with Barghest gets shaky now and then, but Hansen has kept it from breaking. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Voodoo Boys and the rest of Night City#

The gang's real enemy is NetWatch, not another street crew. On the street their main rivals are the Animals, a boostergang that holds part of Pacifica. They have no time for the NCPD, which pulled out of Pacifica years before 2077, and they keep their distance from the big corps. For how they fit beside Maelstrom, the Valentinos and the rest, see our guide to Cyberpunk's gangs. (Cyberpunk 2077)