Fixers, mercs, and ripperdocs: Get to know Cyberpunk 2077's main characters

Even before it launched we began to get a look at the Cyberpunk 2077 characters you'll be meeting as you raise hell in Night City. The character you play, named V, will meet all sorts of people, from gang leaders to mercenaries to megacorporation managers. Some you'll partner with, some you'll fight against, and with some you'll probably wind up doing both.

Before you dive into Cyberpunk 2077, it wouldn't hurt to get a little background on some of its main characters. Here are a few of the important Cyberpunk 2077 characters, and what we know about them so far.

Cyberpunk 2077 characters: Meet the key players

Jackie Welles

Jackie Welles is a former member of the Valentino gang, though he says he quit the gang after his mother found out he'd joined. He's now working as a mercenary in Night City. Tough and gruff, gameplay footage shows several quests where V partners up with Welles, including one where they're stealing an augmented cybernetic chip together.

In Cyberpunk 2077, V meets Jackie early in the game, no matter which Cyberpunk 2077 lifepath with which the player begins. In the Street Kid lifepath, V will meet Jackie while boosting a stolen car. If V is a nomad, Jackie will meet them during a smuggling mission. If V is a corpo, they'll already know each other.

Judy Alvarez

Judy Alvarez is a member of the Moxes gang, and she also runs the Cyberpunk 2077  Braindance operation at Lizzie's Bar in the Watson District—a braindance being a way to escape real life and indulge in virtual fantasies generated by the experiences of other people.

Your character, V, will team up with Alvarez a few times in the main story, and you'll have more opportunities to get to know her in sidequests, as Andy Kelly discovered when he played Cyberpunk 2077 recently. 

"A bunch of really bad stuff happens to Judy," said Andy, "and there are some really quite quiet, tender moments between V and her as a result of this stuff, and you can console her and be understanding. You can also be a dick and say 'Yeah, whatever, get over it', but I could never bring myself to do that, especially since I really liked the character.

Meredith Stout

Meredith Stout is a corpo, working as the senior operations manager for Militech, a weapons manufacturing megacorporation in Cyberpunk 2077. In gameplay footage, V has a run-in with Stout after the theft of the Flathead, a piece of military hardware. Stout is trying to find a mole in her corporation, and pays V to install a chip in the hideout of the Maelstrom gang, who stole the Flathead.

"Meredith is an egomaniac who will stop at nothing to reach her goals," says the gameplay narrator, "and she's highly successful. She lives and breathes corporate. She despises the common folk and spits all over people from the lower classes."

Dexter DeShawn

Dexter DeShawn is a fixer in Cyberpunk 2077, a go-between that links a client who needs something—stolen merchandise, an assassination, or other crime—with a mercenary willing to do the job. As such, Dex is very well connected in Night City, both with underworld operators and the upper echelon.

As a rising star in Night City, V will attract Dex's attention and he'll hire you for a big job he's planning. If and when a job goes sideways, however, don't expect Dex to be too understanding.

T-Bug

T-Bug is a netrunner and hacker, and while she doesn't appear to be a major player, she's been seen in a number of different gameplay videos, taking part in several missions, meaning she may be regularly recurring character. T-Bug can hack into cyberware, shutting it down remotely (as she does to V in one instance).

Lizzy Wizzy

Lizzy Wizzy is is a major celebrity in Cyberpunk 2077, a singer best known for committing suicide during a performance, having her entire body replaced with cyberware, and then finishing the show in her new robot body. Wizzy is voiced by the singer, Grimes, in Cyberpunk 2077.

Victor Vector

Victor Vector is a ripperdoc, a combination of a doctor and a mechanic who can install cyberware in human beings. Early gameplay footage shows V paying a visit to Misty's Esoterica, a shop in the Watson District. There, Victor installs an optic sensor and a subdermal weapon grip in V's body.

Like many ripperdocs, Victor can install both legal cyberware and illegal, black-market implants. Victor can also be visited to upgrade previous installed cyberware. 

Johnny Silverhand

Even if you haven't been devotedly following the game, you no doubt know that Keanu Reeves is playing a major character known as Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077. A legendary rockstar and frontman for the band Samurai, he's something of a hero in Night City.

The thing about Johnny is that he's been missing since the year 2020, and in Cyberpunk 2077 he appears in your character's head, a sort of digital ghost that only you can see.