There are many fascinating characters in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, but one of Night City's most influential people, Rache Bartmoss, is coincidentally also one of the most mysterious. His name is mentioned periodically throughout the game - by some of its most important characters - and yet his full story isn't made exactly clear. Every fan of this futuristic franchise should know this infamous Netrunner's story, as even beyond his death, his legacy is felt all throughout Cyberpunk 2077.
Rache Bartmoss was born in 1992 to a Night City - and a Net - much different from the one seen in-game. At the time, it was still a wide, open cyberspace that spanned globally and was relatively safe to use. However, the structure of the Net completely shifted, and several, now-crucial Netrunning elements were birthed with the rise and fall of this mastermind.
Rache Bartmoss Created The Daemon Programs In Cyberpunk 2077
Similar to V, whose name is secret in Cyberpunk 2077, not much is known about Bartmoss' childhood - but it is widely accepted that he was something of a prodigy. He started Netrunning when he was only four years old, and within just a few years, he was working at several companies and writing software code for them. However, as the companies were quick to find out, Bartmoss was a bit of a rebel and in reality hated corporations with a burning passion (like most Night City residents do). He never worked for any particular company for too long, always breaking the rules in some shape or form, and then using his hacking skills to completely clear up any negative records before moving on to his next job.
He continued doing this for years, until he found work at a company named CCI Development. It was here that he wrote the Daemon (or Demon) programs, which are essential parts to the best hacking build in Cyberpunk 2077. These programs could be used to hack entire networks at a time, imposing various negative effects onto each connected device. Obviously, as a breakthrough in Netrunning technology, many companies were eager to get their hands on the Daemons. Bartmoss made such a large profit selling these programs that he set himself up for life financially before even reaching his twenties.
Cyberpunk 2077 - Rache Bartmoss Used His Netrunning Skills As A Political Weapon
When Bartmoss was seventeen, his life completely changed when he met Spider Murphy. She quickly became his apprentice, partner in crime, and best friend. Bartmoss and Murphy - along with two of their other friends, Dog and Edger - started to spend a majority of their days inside the Net. There, the group would hack and kill NetWatch agents for fun. Being an avid corpo-hater, Bartmoss inherently despised this security organization for protecting the evil corporations of the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. Thus, he took it upon himself to eliminate them from cyberspace (and consequently, real space, as he fried their neural systems),
Needless to say, by this time Bartmoss was considered a dangerous criminal in Night City. But years later, when he moved into an apartment in Night City's Combat Zone, he took his political agenda to an even greater extreme. He asked all building tenants who didn't have neural implants to move out, and instead arranged for corpo-suits to take their place. He installed a personality controlling program on each of their cyberdecks, which allowed him to control their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
He ended up using this to his advantage as he became increasingly wanted in Night City, forcing the tenants to act as his own personal security without their knowledge. His reputation plummeted to that of a terrorist among corporations and many civilians, much like Johnny Silverhand's backstory in Cyberpunk 2077. But in the Netrunning community, he skyrocketed to legendary status.
Cyberpunk 2077's Rache Bartmoss Was On Life Support In His Final Years
By the 2020s, Bartmoss had dedicated his entire life to Netrunning. In order to protect his body from adverse physical effects (as well as cyberattacks), he began hooking himself up to life support machines. In fact, they actually saved him from death in 2014, when he was only 22 years old. The Net was undergoing a massive transformation at the time, thanks to a new algorithm - and even though Bartmoss was aware of the change, he adamantly decided to stay inside the Net. His heart stopped for 10 seconds, but his machines were able to bring his pulse back and resuscitate him, like Cyberpunk 2077's once-antagonistic Jackie Welles unknowingly did by giving the chip to V.
In the end, though, this couldn't grant him immortality. While Netrunning in 2020, for reasons unknown, his heart mysteriously stopped - and his machines weren't able to revive him. However, by that time he had upgraded his life support to include a cryogenic freezer. The freezer was able to detect the failure of his heart, and it cooled his body down significantly to preserve his brain. Of course, since he was connected to the Net at the time of his death, he was able to continue living on as a ghost in cyberspace. In fact, players can find Bartmoss' body and cyberdeck in Cyberpunk 2077, still inside his cryogenic freezer.
A year later, in 2021, Militech managed to contact Bartmoss through the Net and asked that he help them against Arasaka in the Fourth Corporate War. Although at first he intended to reject their request, Alt Cunningham, another powerful Netrunner trapped in the Net (and Johnny Silverhand's past lover), managed to sway his position and convinved him to help Militech. In doing so, Bartmoss launched an assault on Arasaka's Net. There, he was able to uncover Soulkiller, the infamous program written by Alt herself.
Cyberpunk 2077 History - Rache Bartmoss Destroyed The Old Net In DataKrash
Although Bartmoss was able to continue his reign inside the Net for a couple of years, it was cut short when his location was triangulated by agents (possibly from Cyberpunk 2077's Arasaka Corporation). Somehow, he was able to reach out to Murphy and confess his love to her. And, just before his apartment was raided, he executed a series of actions that would ultimately cause the infamous DataKrash.
Bartmoss released R.A.B.I.D.S., or Roving Autonomous Bartmoss Interface Drones, into the Net. He had designed the programs to simply break into corporate data fortresses, unleashing their information into the Net in a final act of political activism. However, they instead acted as viruses and immediately began corrupting data. Within a few months, over 78% of the Net had been infected, and it was in a state of fragmented ruin.
Many powerful artificial intelligence programs were also released, causing them to run rampant and destroy everything in their wake. NetWatch was unable to neutralize the rogue AIs, and so they instead attempted to contain them by building a giant wall of ICE in Cyberpunk 2077. This protective barrier, called Blackwall, was successful in keeping the AIs out, but it also turned the Net into a collection of small cyberspaces, rather than an expansive, unified net.
To this day, the Net can be a dangerous and unpredictable place with corrupted data, heavy NetWatch surveillance, and aggressive artificial intelligence. Although it wasn't the outcome he intended, Bartmoss - through both his life accomplishments and posthumous effects alike - went down in a blaze of glory and changed the Net forever. Some still consider him a terrorist in Night City, while others regard him as an anti-corpo genius, but one thing is for certain: Rache Bartmoss and his legacy have shaped the history of Cyberpunk 2077 forever.