Cyberpunk 2077 Gangs of Night City: Animals, Glorifying the Body

Have you ever run into some muscular gangsters in NC? The bulky muscle line tells you clearly that they are not ordinary NPCs walking on the street… Meet the Animals, a gang glorifying the body and flesh. (Maybe…with some help from the cybergears and injections…) The story of the Animals is intertwined with other side gigs, but is mostly revealed through “Two Wrongs Makes Us Right“. Let’s dive into the story of the Animals’ wild hunt in the concrete jungle of NC!

Cyberpunk 2077 Gangs of Night City: the Animals

Cyberpunk 2077 Gangs of Night City is a topic involving eight gangs: Maelstrom, BARGHEST, The Mox, Voodoo Boys, Tyger Claws, Animals, 6th Street, and Valentinos. Each gang has its territories on the map, unique visual symbols, and agendas that involve you into different side gigs.

The Animals carry the creed of maximizing the potential of the flesh, mostly through biochemical methods. They will take animal supplements, such as modified horse growth hormones. The steroid-like drug, like “Juice”, is one of their augmenting methods too. Besides the in-takes, they still install cyberlimbs to realize charged jumps, etc. You can discover the details about their cyberwear by scanning them.

All in all, a commonly used graffiti can best describe the ideal of the Animals: the combination of animals’ power and the human body. The graffiti combines the image of a leopard with human arms. Mind that, it’s not placing human beings as the central figure. To some extent, it implies that the human body is only like a ship loading all the great attributes from animals. At heart, the Animals glorify the animals’ mindset and their prowess, just like the leopard in the middle of the graffiti.

The Animals: body features and attacks

As mentioned before, the gang members of the Animals usually have very bulky and muscular bodies. But the case is not always like that. There are also common-looking gangsters who are the Animals’ members too. Upon scanning them, you can see if they are affiliated with the Animals.

The scan will also reveal their abilities. Most of them have equipment like the flashbangs, the break hold, and the combat stim. Flashbangs are X-22 Flashbang Grenades, commonly used in the combat in Cyberpunk 2077. The break hold allows them to break the defense during melee combats. The combat stim is a combat drug that can boost the body for better endurance, but it is also addictive.

Those strong gang members will have their special movements in the fight, like hitting their fists together during the preparations. However, the actual fight is not different from fighting any other gangsters, mostly through gunfire, instead of melee attacks. That’s anticlimactic as you expect them to have some unique melee techniques that are special for this gang. After all, their creed and ideals about maximizing their body capabilities are such fascinating world settings.

A visual culture of unruly wildness

The visual culture of the Animals consists of graffiti and posters in their territories. A good example is the spot that the side gig “Two Wrongs Makes Us Right” will take you to.

The den is covered in many different designed graffiti that conveys the central ideas of this gang. They admire the strong, the powerful, and the beastly ones. The graffiti with leopard images is painted at several spots on the wall. There are also other paints such as “Pull Up or Die”, “Fear the Beasts”, and “Sweat n’ Blood”. They work together to express the core idea of the jungle rules and the iconized body and flesh.

The environment also features many posters showcasing strong bodybuild. It echos the workout equipment lying on the ground, including dumbbells and boxing sandbags.

The spot where V is supposed to steal a vehicle in this side gig provides a perfect visual epitome of the gang culture of the Animals. As you go downstairs vertically, you are also going deeper into the heart of the Animals, exploring its gang culture with an immersive experience of what their living sphere is like in the game.

Shard and computer: unveiling the gang stories and relations

Anyone who enjoys going through all the documents and materials on the gig scene like me? Cyberpunk 2077 always surprises me with its thorough and comprehensive structure in weaving relationships and stories. There are two intriguing materials you can find in “Two Wrongs Makes Us Right”: one is a shard containing an interview with an anonymous Animals gang member, and the other one is a message on the computer.

The interview shard “Interview with A Queen of the Metrojungle: Anon Animal” discloses all the core information about the Animals, including their use of animal hormones, gym training, and the animal-strength fetish. To make the gang appear to be even more intimidating, the interviewer sounds very hesitant when asking questions. (I can almost tell the sweat coming out of his forehead.)

“Humans are weak by nature. Hippos, though? They can eat a whole croc – can you? And, dude, tigers? Four-inch canines and seven hundred pounds of pure fucking majesty. And that’s who we are – the alpha beasts of Night City.”

From a computer at the base, you will see a message involving multiple figures in NC.

Brandon Frost is on the hit list according to this message, because he killed several Animals by casting them into concrete, and made XBD out of it. He is a member of the Maelstrom and guards a clinic in Northside. This piece of information creates more interactions and tensions between the two gangs.

But a piece of more interesting information is about Monica Steiner, who looks for a nomad to help her seek revenge on Logan Garcia. If you’ve finished the side gig called “For My Son“, you will know that it’s V killing Garcia for Steiner at the old paint factory, the same location where V did the fistfight with Rhino. This information fills in the missing piece of how the situation escalated and the Animals’ perspective on the situation.

Conclusion (Cyberpunk 2077 Gangs of Night City – Animals)

In my opinion, Animals is the kind of gang that can leave a strong impression even when you are encountering them for the first time. The strong and bulky body build, the assault records and attack methods upon scanning them, and their unique visual culture, make them a presence that is hard to be overlooked in NC. When the real animals either fled or died out in the Cyberpunk world, the man-made Animals hop onto the city stage. Click here to explore more about Cyberpunk 2077!