Royce

Royce, whose real name is Simon Randall, runs the Maelstrom crew holed up in the abandoned All Foods plant in Northside, Watson. His hold on power is recent: he took over by force, locking the previous boss, Brick, in a makeshift cell and promoting his own loyalists, Dum Dum among them. His glowing red optics make him hard to forget, and so does his erratic, paranoid behavior, made worse by drugs. Even so, his database entry credits him with running Maelstrom’s business surprisingly well.

V meets him in The Pickup, one of the first main jobs. Dexter DeShawn sends V and Jackie Welles to collect a Militech Flathead bot that Maelstrom stole from a convoy, but the sale was agreed with Brick, and Royce wants to be paid again on his own terms. The meeting turns into a tense standoff. If V pays, Royce lets the mercs leave with the bot and, should Militech raid the factory, fights on their side. If things turn violent, V can end up facing him in an armored exoskeleton.

Whether Royce survives the job depends entirely on V’s choices. If he does, he is still in charge later on, and V can find him at the Totentanz, Maelstrom’s club in Northside, during the Johnny Silverhand side job Second Conflict. Royce was already featured in the game’s E3 2018 demo, which showed an early version of The Pickup.