☢️ Hot Zone
“The skyline over the Hot Zone is dark and below lies the tortured corpse of an area that once served as the hub of Night City. Flashes of light flicker in the rubble below as gangers and scavvers fight for the throne of a dead kingdom.”
Ground zero of the Night City Nuke. Irradiated ruins. A haunted landscape where only the desperate dare to tread.
📍 Overview
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Zone Type | Hot Zone (Wasteland) |
| Threat Rating | Combat (with radiation hazards) |
| Population | Minimal—gangers, scavvers, the desperate |
| Notable Hazard | Residual radiation, unstable structures |
| Former Name | Corporate Zone, Corporate Center |
The Hot Zone is what remains of Night City’s old Corporate Center after the nuclear detonation in August 2023. While much of the rubble was bulldozed into the Bay as fill, the remainder is still a haunted landscape of wrecked, twisted skyscrapers, burned-out vehicles, and entombed bodies of the unlucky.
Radiation Warning
While radiation has subsided to non-lethal levels for short exposure, prolonged time in the Hot Zone is dangerous. Anyone without a Radiation Suit (CRB p. 101) takes 2 damage per Round from radioactive particles. Armor does not help.
📜 History
The Corporate Center
Before August 20th, 2023, this was the heart of Night City’s economic power. Arasaka Towers dominated the skyline—twin monuments to corporate ambition. The Corporate Center gleamed with glass and chrome, filled with executives, office workers, and the machinery of megacorporate dominance.
The Night City Nuke
On August 20th, 2023, a nuclear device detonated during an assault on Arasaka’s Night City headquarters. Over half a million people were killed instantly or in the aftermath. The explosion liquefied the fill the city was built on—Night City experienced not just nuclear devastation but a devastating earthquake.
Who Did It?
Rumors swirl to this day. Various groups pin the blame on:
- Johnny Silverhand
- Morgan Blackhand
- Militech
- The United States Government
- Arasaka itself
The truth may never be known.
Reconstruction
In the years since, gigatons of fill were shifted from the radioactive ruins. Much of the old Bay was filled in with the rubble. But the core of the Hot Zone remains—too damaged, too contaminated, too haunted to reclaim.
🏚️ What Remains
Old Neighborhood Zones
| Area | Description |
|---|---|
| The Old Bank Block | Housing all the old banks of Night City; mostly rubble but never officially cleared out—rumors of untouched vaults |
| The Old City Center | Only radioactive ruins remain of the once-bustling center |
| The Old Corporate Center | Ground Zero—where Arasaka Towers stood |
| The Old Medical Center | Largely irradiated; hospitals buried under rubble; medical supplies possibly intact |
Terrain Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Twisted skyscrapers | Bent at impossible angles, leaning, unstable |
| Façade wreckage | Most building facades blown away, exposing skeletal structures |
| Rubble fields | Miles of debris, some areas impassable |
| Burned vehicles | Rusting hulks everywhere, some still containing remains |
| Impact craters | Flooded depressions marking explosion points |
| Underground access | Collapsed tunnels, subway, basement networks |
Hidden Locations
| Location | Description |
|---|---|
| Network 54 Building | Façade mostly blown away, but the satellite receiver on the roof survived. Can scan the entire city in a single sweep |
| Toggle’s Temple | Hidden underground armory/gun range beneath the western edge; entrance in Little Europe’s sewers, three blocks north of Short Circuit |
| Scavver Shelters | Makeshift camps under radiation blankets—some still occupied, some containing only dried corpses |
☢️ Radiation
Exposure Effects
| Exposure | Effect |
|---|---|
| Short visit (hours) | Minimal—radioactivity filters recommended |
| Extended stay (days) | Cumulative sickness without protection |
| Living here | Shortened lifespan; permanent health damage |
| Unprotected in hot pocket | 2 damage per Round (armor does not help) |
Protection Methods
| Method | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Radiation Suit | Full protection | Obvious, cumbersome |
| Radioactivity Filters (cyberware) | Reduces exposure | Not complete protection |
| Anti-radiation drugs | Temporary protection | Limited duration |
| Old radiation blankets | Can protect up to 2 people | Found in scavver shelters |
🔫 Who’s Here?
| Group | Activity |
|---|---|
| Scavvers | Picking through ruins for valuables; some desperate, some organized |
| Maelstrom | Pushing into the zone, competing with smaller scavver groups |
| Desperate gangs | Hiding from rivals, law, society |
| Reckoners | Apocalyptic cultists drawn to “holy ground” |
| Treasure hunters | Looking for pre-War caches, bank vaults |
| Nobody sane |
The Scavver Economy
Maelstrom (from the Hot Zone) and nomad packs (from The Badlands) are pushing smaller scavvers to bolder action in the Combat Zones. Competition for salvage is fierce.
🌆 Atmosphere
The Dead Kingdom
The Hot Zone is a place of profound silence broken only by wind and collapse. A “dead kingdom” where gangers and scavvers fight for the throne of nothing.
Day
- Eerie silence, oppressive emptiness
- Wind whistling through skeletal towers
- Scavvers picking through debris, watching for rivals
- Unstable buildings groaning, occasional collapse
- Ash still coating everything (gray-white film)
- Red-tinged sky from particulate matter
Night
- Total darkness (no power, no lights)
- Strange lights in the distance (scavver camps, cultist rituals)
- Sounds carry impossibly far in the silence
- Extremely dangerous—you can’t see what’s coming
- Wind carries radioactive particles
😄 What You See
🎲 GM Resources
Why Go Here?
| Purpose | Hook |
|---|---|
| Treasure hunting | Bank vaults, corporate caches, pre-War tech |
| Hiding | No one sane looks for you here |
| Retrieval | Something important is buried in the ruins |
| Investigation | What really happened in 2023? |
| Tech access | Network 54 satellite receiver, old infrastructure |
| Weapons dealing | Toggle’s Temple (if you can get an introduction) |
| Cult activity | Stopping (or joining?) the Reckoners |
Hazard Table
| Hazard | Effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Unstable building | May collapse—4d6 damage | Athletics check to escape |
| Radiation pocket | 2 damage/Round unprotected | Armor doesn’t help |
| Scavver traps | Varies—alarms, explosives, pit traps | Protecting caches |
| Toxic pools | Chemical burns, 2d6 damage | Avoid standing water |
| Corpse contact | Radiation exposure + morale check | The dead are everywhere |
Toggle’s Temple
Hidden beneath the western edge of the Hot Zone in a tangle of old sewers, abandoned basements, and broken parking garages:
- Access: Introduction from existing customer or invitation from Toggle; otherwise DV21 Streetwise Check
- DV increased if you work for police or megacorps (Toggle’s “three Cs”)
- Entrance: Little Europe sewers, three blocks north of Short Circuit
- Services: Underground armory, gun range, configurable weapons obstacle course
🔗 Related Topics
- Fourth Corporate War and Aftermath — How this happened
- Arasaka — Whose towers these were
- Scavvers — Who lives here now
- Reckoners — Apocalyptic cult drawn to Ground Zero
- Little Europe — Toggle’s Temple entrance location
- Night City
(Source: Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook, pp. 292-293, 296; Interface RED Vol. 5; Tales of the Red: Street Stories)