Arasaka Towers

The Arasaka Towers was a massive skyscraper complex located in the Corporate Plaza of Night City. It stood as the North American branch headquarters for the Arasaka Corporation until its destruction during the AHQ Disaster of 2023. Approximately fifty years later, a new Arasaka Tower was built on the same site as the former office complex.

1990s - 2013
Despite having multiple regional offices across North America, Arasaka made a huge investment in Night City during its building stages. As such, Night City became the location of the headquarters for Arasaka's North American branch. The original Arasaka Tower complex was 22 stories tall and located in Central Night City's Corporate Plaza. Toshiro Harada, whose office was located in the tower, was the NA branch director.

In 2013, Johnny Silverhand instigated a riot in front of the tower from the nearby Industrial Park in order to infiltrate the offices and rescue Alt Cunningham. During the event, many Arasaka employees were killed, including Toshiro. Much of the building was heavily damaged and was consequently soon replaced by a new office complex.

2013 - 2023
Situated on the same site as the previous office, the newly built Arasaka Towers became the tallest buildings in Night City and were clearly visible from most areas in clear weather. Similar to other Arasaka corporate offices across the world, the complex featured two towers connected by bridges and a shared lobby, as well as two additional smaller office towers located in front of the main towers.

All access points were tightly controlled. Armed security troops patrolled the roofs, grounds, parking areas, and building interiors 24 hours a day. No unauthorized vehicles were permitted on either the rooftops or in any subterranean areas, and authorization was to be given only to persons with appointments or who either appeared on traffic/commercial manifests/schedules or were cleared by a company employee. Similar conditions applied to those who wished to proceed beyond the reception area.

The Arasaka Plaza, a small park surrounding the building, was open to the public, but corporate security patrolled it daily.

Prior to 2020, Yoru Tomobiki became the director of Arasaka America and had his office in this building. During the Fourth Corporate War, CEO Kei Arasaka used Arasaka Towers as Araka's main operations center in the war effort against Militech. However, after losing support from both the European branch and Arasaka assets from Japan, the megacorporation took the losing side.

The Fall of the Towers (2023)
On August 20 2023, a Militech incursion team led by Morgan Blackhand and Johnny Silverhand attempted an infiltration into the Arasaka Towers in order to copy or destroy the Arasaka's Reliquary Database Project, and erase the Soulkiller program from their network. The idea was to render the database project unusable for the rival corp by using a tactical nuclear device with the planned area, a heavily shielded complex, to absorb the impact of the blast and prevent massive destruction. Johnny's team dropped out of an AV on the top floor of the Towers, with the mission of infiltrating the laboratories ten levels down into the building to retrieve Alt Cunningham, who was trapped within the Arasaka network, and destroy Soulkiller. After reaching their destination, netrunner Spider Murphy accessed the computers in order to rescue Alt and uploaded a virus to destroy any information regarding Soulkiller. In their escape from the building, they lost most of their team, including Johnny Silverhand, against Adam Smasher and a large number of Arasaka troopers. Once on the top of the building, the survivors managed to get into the rescue AV, and while lifting off, they saw Morgan Blackhand going against Adam Smasher on top of the Arasaka Towers. A few minutes later, once the AV was quite far away from the building, a nuke went off.

It's unknown how, but somehow the nuclear device that had been provided to Morgan's team prematurely detonated on the 120th floor of the southern tower, inside Kei's apartment bunker where the Soulkiller laboratory was located. The explosion instantly obliterated the Arasaka Towers, splitting them in half and causing both structures to collapse outward. The blast instantly incinerated over 12,000 people in the vicinity of the Towers, and fatally injured upwards of half a million more. Another quarter million died in the resulting aftermath over weeks and months.

Aftermath (2023 - 2045)
Then US President Elizabeth Kress blamed the Night City attack on the Arasaka Corporation. However, she was soon able to determine that the actual weapon used had been supplied by a Militech strike team. The Big Lie pushed forward by Militech and the US was that Arasaka themselves had blown up the Corporate Center of Night City in an area denial attack to stop Militech from seizing control of the Arasaka Towers during the war. The truth is it was never formally decided who had triggered the explosion. In the public's eyes, the reasoning for the nuclear detonation was never uncovered. Some believed it was Militech's overzealous desire to crush Arasaka, while others believed it was an area denial weapon set off to protect the Arasaka Towers.

Within hours of the disaster, President Kress nationalized Militech, and placed it thoroughly under the control of the still sizable United States military, while banishing all Arasaka forces from the continental USA under the threat of a retaliatory strike on Arasaka's Tokyo headquarters.

Not long after the incident, the remains of the old Arasaka HQ were visited by Samantha Stevens, who accessed the wrecked bunker below the ruins. While exploring the area, Samantha found the body of Silverhand and an unexploded Arasaka nuclear device. After finishing her business there, she left the ruins.

What once was the bustling business center of Night City, it had become a radioactive ruin that would be known as the Hot Zone for many years to come. During the rebuilding of Night City, much of the radioactive rubble was tossed into Del Coronado Bay. By 2045, much of the radiation had subsided, but it was still present to some level.

Rebuilding (2070s)
After the Unification War ended in 2070, Arasaka was welcomed back to North America and gained the permission to build a new office center. The Japanese corporation chose the site of their former complex in Night City. Once they had cleaned up the remaining ruins, they built a new Arasaka Tower. As a tribute to the 2023 incident, a portion of the original building was left and repurposed into a memorial.

Layout


The Arasaka Towers of Night City were a set of four gigantic office towers divided into two buildings. The main building was reminiscent of other Arasaka offices elsewhere, such as the corporate headquarters in Tokyo, featuring two towers connected via bridges and a sharing a lobby. At 130 stories, it was the tallest building in Night City.

The towers had a featureless surface in black glass and steel, with the Arasaka logo and name on a black marble plaque that stood by the walkway to the main entrance. There were heliports and AV-4 pads on both tower roofs, and a restricted subterranean parking and loading area. The only section opened to the public was the reception area in the ground floor, and no public facilities were found anywhere in the complex. On the other hand, private companies had an arrange of facilities — including cafeterias, medical centers, stores, recreational spaces, and sleeping quarters.

The area surrounding the Towers was known as the Arasaka Grounds or Plaza. It included the entrances to the complex and the underground parking. At least four small bunkers were located in each corner of the grounds. The two smaller towers in front of the main complex were just for offices.

The main building, the two bigger towers, included everything listed below.

Floor -14: Arasaka Bunker/Command Center
Located beneath the parking lot of the Arasaka Towers, this bunker was a command center for Arasaka during the Fourth Corporate War. It included a variety of service rooms such as a kitchen, lockers, storage, a gym, etc. Most importantly, it was where the Arasaka Database and the Soulkiller Storage Core were located.

Unknown Floor to -01: Basement/Parking Lot
The basement area mostly included the underground parking.

Floor 01: Lobby
The lobby of the main building had an open arboretum area and access to the stairs and elevators.

Floor 100: Offices
Much of the towers were made up of offices. Of note, floor 100 was where the staircases and elevators that went to the rooftop bottomed out.

Floor 120: Saburo/Kei's Apartment
Located on the 120th floor, this area of the building was divided between the two towers, and was connected by two bridges. It included everything to comfortably live there. Originally owned by Saburo Arasaka, his son Kei inherited it after becoming the new CEO. The Soulkiller Research room was located here as well. This was the floor where the nuclear device went off.

Floor 126
Mostly made up of fuel tanks, exhaust vents, fire suppression and other support systems. It included locker rooms and showers for the hangar technicians and pilots.

Floor 127 to 130: Hangars
Below both rooftops was the hangar, which included pads for an osprey, helicopter, and aerodynes, as well as an arsenal and a workshop.

Rooftops
The rooftops had entrances to the hangar below, and were protected by four gun pods. The facilities here included a tower for aircraft flight control.