Jackie Welles

Jackie Welles was a merc from Heywood who, together with V, aimed to become a Night City legend. Jackie was known to value friendship, loyalty, and family above all else. He dreamed of living a life of luxury and providing for his own family, a dream that remained elusive for the impatient merc and that would ultimately never materialize.

In Cyberpunk 2077, Jackie is one of V's first contacts, quickly becoming V's partner and accompanying V on a handful of early jobs in the game.

2046 - 2060s
Jackie was raised by both of his parents, though his father was an alcoholic and an abuser, often getting drunk and beating his wife and Jackie mercilessly with his belt. When Jackie became old enough and strong enough, he finally returned the favor, hospitalizing his father and threatening to kill the old man if he ever returned home. Raúl left and was never seen again, but Jackie kept his father's belt, planning to use it on the man if he ever returned.

Jackie grew up in the same neighborhood as Misty Olszewski. The two saw a lot each other, though they never got together in their younger years.

At the age of 15, Jackie got on his first bike, and from then on, he tinkered with any bikes he could get his hands on. Early on, he joined the Valentinos alongside Gustavo Orta and the two became fast friends. However, after sustaining a near-fatal gunshot wound at 19 in a gang war firefight with the Maelstrom, Jackie decided to leave the gang for the sake of his mother, though he remained on good terms with the gang and with Padre.

2076
In 2076, Jackie began dating Misty. His mother disapproved of Misty, preferring his ex-girlfriend, Camilla, but he continued to date Misty, even attempting to understand and reciprocate her spiritualism by making a mandala in his garage.

Later that same year, Jackie met V, the circumstances of their meeting being determined by the lifepath the player chose. Based on this choice, Jackie and V will have had a different introduction, each one seeing Jackie as either being or becoming a friend to V during the prologue:


 * Jackie hires V to smuggle a crate from the SoCal Badlands into Night City. After crossing the border, they are pursued by an Arasaka convoy, but manage to slip away through the Biotechnica Flats. With the car broken down and no where to go, Jackie offers to let V stay with his mother and him until V has enough money to move out.


 * Jackie encounters V while both are separately attempting to steal the same luxury car. Before their confrontation can escalate, however, they are arrested by an old acquaintance of Jackie's, NCPD's inspector Henry Stints. Mid-arrest, the vehicle's owner appears and orders Stints to kill them, after which the inspector orders his officers to knock the two mercs out and toss them in a back alley, but ultimately deciding to let them live.
 * Bruised, but alive, Jackie introduces himself to V, claiming he has seen V a few times in El Coyote Cojo. The two quickly bond over a shared friendship with El Coyote's bartender, Pepe Najarro, and V is surprised to further learn that Welles is the son of the establishment's proprietor, Mama Welles. Jackie then invites V to breakfast, eventually offering to let V stay with Mama Welles and him until V has enough money to move out.


 * Jackie is a long time friend and confidant of V, helping V out whenever and wherever possible. During a meeting at Lizzie's Bar, an Arasaka entourage strips V of their corporate status with the intention of executing the young corpo. Before the entourage can carry out the execution, however, Jackie intervenes and rescues V, afterward assuring V this is a chance for a new start and offering to let V stay with Mama Welles and him until V has enough money to move out.

2077
By late April 2077, six months after the events of the prologue, Jackie and V had established themselves as reliable mercs. At the time they rescued Sandra Dorsett from Scavs, the two were already working with T-Bug. At the suggestion of T-Bug, Jackie and V were recruited by Dexter DeShawn (at the behest of Evelyn Parker) to steal a prototype Relic from Yorinobu Arasaka containing an engram of Johnny Silverhand.

During The Pickup, Jackie accompanied V to the Maelstrom stronghold, All Foods Factory, to acquire a Militech Flathead, which was essential for the seemingly impossible heist. After everything was set in place for the heist, Jackie and V were finally admitted into the famed Afterlife, where Jackie intimated to the club's bartender, Claire Russell, that he wanted a cocktail named after him if he ever managed to become a Night City legend. The drink would contain "A shot of vodka, lime juice, ginger beer and, most importantly... a splash of love."

That night, Jackie and V held their briefing with T-Bug and Dex on how to steal the Relic from Konpeki Plaza. Although the mercs successfully infiltrated Yorinobu's room and retrieved the Relic, The Heist took a sudden downturn when Yorinobu killed his father during a surprise visit by the elder Arasaka. Jackie and V managed to escape the hotel, but Jackie sustained mortal wounds, soon after succumbing to them in the Delamain Cab before they could arrive at the No-Tell Motel to meet with Dex.

The fate of Jackie's body was decided by V:


 * Mama Welles calls V to share that Jackie's family and friends are holding a traditional ofrenda to mourn his loss. Guests include Viktor Vektor, Padre, and several Valentinos (as well as Misty if V insists that she attend despite Mama Welles's opinion of her). V chooses to either speak at Jackie's ofrenda or not. When the ceremony concludes, Mama Welles presents V with the key to Jackie's beloved ARCH motorcycle as a parting gift.
 * V can later find Jackie interred in the North Oak Columbarium. The epitaph on his tomb reads: "Good night, sweet prince."


 * While in the Arasaka Orbital Station, a vision of Jackie appears to V in a nightmare, in which he tries to give V the Relic chip just before V wakes up.
 * While in the Arasaka Orbital Station, a vision of Jackie appears to V in a nightmare, in which he tries to give V the Relic chip just before V wakes up.


 * After Jackie's body is delivered to Vik, Arasaka visits Vik and takes Jackie's body from the ripperdoc. Goro Takemura later reveals to V that Arasaka used Soulkiller to learn more about the heist. Few engrams were meant to learn more about the Relic's true nature.


 * After The Heist, Mama Welles messages V claiming to have left V a package containing some of Jackie's belongings, including the keys to Jackie's ARCH motorcycle.


 * After V gives Alt access to the Arasaka Tower computers, she destroys Mikoshi, fusing Jackie's engram (among many others) with her image in order to become a more powerful AI. After V connects to Mikoshi, just before joining Johnny and Alt in cyberspace, Jackie's engram appears in a simulation of the rooftop of Misty's Esoterica. After talking to Jackie for a short while, V quickly realizes that it is not really him, but just an algorithm, and bids Jackie a final farewell.
 * After V gives Alt access to the Arasaka Tower computers, she destroys Mikoshi, fusing Jackie's engram (among many others) with her image in order to become a more powerful AI. After V connects to Mikoshi, just before joining Johnny and Alt in cyberspace, Jackie's engram appears in a simulation of the rooftop of Misty's Esoterica. After talking to Jackie for a short while, V quickly realizes that it is not really him, but just an algorithm, and bids Jackie a final farewell.


 * When visiting Mikoshi with Hanako Arasaka, V can ask to talk to Jackie's engram, but quickly realizes that it's just data masking itself as human. While in the Arasaka Orbital Station, a vision of Jackie appears to V in a nightmare, in which he tries to give V the Relic chip just before V wakes up.
 * When visiting Mikoshi with Hanako Arasaka, V can ask to talk to Jackie's engram, but quickly realizes that it's just data masking itself as human. While in the Arasaka Orbital Station, a vision of Jackie appears to V in a nightmare, in which he tries to give V the Relic chip just before V wakes up.

Associated Quests

 * The Nomad
 * The Streetkid
 * The Corpo-Rat
 * Practice Makes Perfect
 * The Rescue
 * The Ripperdoc
 * The Ride
 * The Pickup
 * The Heist
 * Totalimmortal (as simulated construct; dependent)
 * Changes (as simulated construct; dependent)
 * Where is My Mind? (in a dream)

Development
Jackie played a major role in the 48-minute Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay reveal, serving as V's partner in the job, Breaking Through, wherein V is tasked with rescuing Sandra Dorsett from the Scavengers before they harvest her body. In the gameplay reveal, Jackie was shown to have a Quadra V-Tech, which V would eventually come to own and drive in the final release of the game.

In the 2019 E3 cinematic trailer, Jackie accompanies V on a mission from Dexter DeShawn to steal a special cybernetic augmentation chip. Although the chip is successfully retrieved, V botches the mission by drawing too much attention to the theft, and Jackie is presumably killed in the ensuing firefight, leaving V heartbroken and wracked with guilt.

In a #REDstreams livestream, senior quest designer Patrick Mills noted that in a very early version of the game's story, Jackie was originally supposed to be an annoyance towards the player, and was the original cause for the failure of The Heist.