Arasaka Towers

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

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

In 2013, Johnny Silverhand instigated a riot from the nearby Industrial Park in front of Arasaka Tower 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 consequently, it was soon replaced by a new office complex.

2013 - 2020
Situated on the same location as the previous office, the newly built Arasaka Towers was the tallest building in Night City. At 130 stories, it was clearly visible from most areas in a clear weather. Similar to other Arasaka corporate offices across the world, it featured two towers connected by bridges and a shared lobby as well as two additional, but smaller, office towers located in front of the main buildings.

The towers had a featureless surface in black glass and steel. The Arasaka logo and name were 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.

All building accesses were tightly controlled. Armed security troops patrolled the roofs, ground, parking area, and building interiors 24 hours a day. No unauthorized vehicles were permitted on the rooftops or in any subterranean areas. Authorization was to be given only if a person had an appointment, appeared on a traffic/commercial manifest or schedule, or was cleared by someone within the company. Similar conditions applied to people 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.

Before 2020, Yoru Tomobiki became the director of Arasaka America and had his office in this building.

The Fall of the Towers (2023)

 * Main article: Night City Holocaust; The Fall of the Towers

During the Fourth Corporate War, CEO Kei Arasaka used the Arasaka Towers as the main operations center on the war effort against Militech. However, after losing support from both the European division and the Arasaka assets from Japan, the megacorporation was on the losing side.

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 the former Arasaka Towers. 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 are a set of four gigantic office towers divided into two buildings. The main building is reminiscent of other Arasaka office buildings elsewhere, such as the corporation's headquarters in Tokyo.

The area surrounding them is known as the Arasaka Grounds or Plaza. It includes the entrances to the complex and the underground parking. At least four small bunkers are located in each corner of the grounds. The two smaller towers are just for offices. The main building, the two bigger towers, includes 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. 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 with access to stairs and elevators to the different floors and an open arboretum area.

Floor 100: Offices
Much of the towers were made up of offices. Of note, floor 100 is where the staircases and elevators that go to the rooftop bottom 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 is 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 includes locker rooms and showers for the hangar techs and pilots.

Floor 127 to 130: Hangars
Below the buildings' rooftop was the hangar, which included pads for an osprey, helicopter, and aerodyne, as well as an arsenal and a workshop.

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