V (character)

V, an alias for Valerie/Vincent, is a mercenary involved in a series of singular events during the year 2077, which toppled the balance of power in Night City.

V is the player-controlled character and the main protagonist of. Their gender, appearance, attributes, perks, and Lifepaths are all customizable and have an impact on the story.

Character Customization
The character customization system process starts with the player either selecting a preset character or creating a custom one. When customizing the character, the player can select a gender and the customize the rest of the character, which can include depictions of breasts and genitalia. Options also include picking between a masculine and feminine voice. The gender you select will also determine V's birthday: October 12, 2049 for female and June 10, 2049 for male.

Lifepaths
The player then selects V's Lifepath background, by choosing Nomad, Streetkid, or Corporate. Each lifepath will begin in a different starting location around Night City, and V will be in a different place in life overall.

The player will have a different introductory questline (The Nomad, The Streetkid, or The Corpo-Rat) and equipment, which will be connected to V's specific origin story and will be introduced to the characters differently. Lifepaths will stretch the entirety of the game, and not only will it open up different dialogue options like previously stated, but you will also unlock a specific side quest based off your Lifepath.

After the introductory questlines, a compilation cutscene will lead into the last two quests of the prologue - The Rescue, a quest that will lead to Act 1; and Practice Makes Perfect, an optional tutorial about some of the video game mechanics. At this point, the game follows a similar narrative line.

Early Life
Depending on the chosen lifepath, V will have one out of three backgrounds which all led to the same narrative path.


 * V grew up in the Badlands, having been part of the Bakkers nomad clan. They left the family after it merged with Snake Nation, leading them to search for a new life. Not long after, V made contact with Jackie Welles, who needed a nomad in order to smuggle Arasaka contraband across the Californian border to Night City.
 * Whilst travelling to the meeting point, V was forced to stop at the Southern Californian town of Yucca to get their car, the Rattler, repaired. After a local mechanic fixed it and the local sheriff kicked them out of the town, V contacted an old Bakker friend to locate Welles. As a last favor to V due to being family, he complied.
 * V finally made contact with Jackie, and once they loaded the cargo on the Rattler, they went directly to the border crossing. They manage to cross without a hitch, but discovered it was all a trap. An Arasaka convoy was waiting for them on the other side of the border, forcing V and Jackie to flee at top speed with the Rattler through the Biotechnica Flats. After losing their tail and taking refuge in an abandoned garage, V and Jackie discovered that they were smuggling a living iguana. Though originally he planned on ditching them without their money, Jackie offered to help V set up in Night City and split their profit by selling the iguana to another party, which they accepted, leading to their friendship.


 * V grew up in the Heywood District of Night City, raised by the gangs. Though they initially left for Atlanta two years ago, they returned to Night City after realizing it was not going to work out.
 * Whilst recovering from a fight in El Coyote Cojo, V agreed to help the bartender, Pepe Najarro, settle a debt with a fixer by the name of Kirk Sawyer. In exchange for paying the debt, Kirk sent V to steal a Rayfield Aerondight from a corpo agent. After receiving a lift from their old friend Padre, V proceeded with the job.
 * As they managed to enter and start the car, V was stopped by Jackie Welles, who was also attempting to steal the vehicle. However, they were quickly surrounded by the NCPD, led by officer Henry Stints, and were arrested. Though ordered to be executed by the vehicle's owner - Kaoru Fujioka - they were instead knocked out and left bloodied in an alleyway of Heywood. After the ordeal, V and Jackie were properly introduced, the latter revealing that Kirk's threats were actually empty. When he invited them for a meal, V hesitantly accepted, leading to their friendship.


 * V was raised in a corporate family from Charter Hill, Night City. V trained in creating and maintaining intelligence networks, establishing defense of corporate assets in the event of armed conflict, crisis impact analysis. Their superior, Arthur Jenkins, was a big reason V was a high ranking counterintelligence operative agent in the Arasaka Tower in Corpo Plaza. They worked for the Arasaka Corporation and over a two-year period of active duty, had completed six defensive and five offensive operations. Their last assignment was a full reconnaissance of an Asaraka facility in Watson. V had tracked and intercepted a spy from Baskin Undercover Inc, the spy was suspected to have been working under Militech orders. V had proven that they were an effective autonomous operative; Clever and ambitious they were always committed to completing the assignments and never showed disloyalty to Arasaka. However they showed high levels of stress.
 * During the Frankfurt leak, Jenkins was tasked with dealing with the situation after assassinating a number of ESA representatives without the official approval of his superior, Susan Abernathy. V was tasked by Jenkins to assassinate Abernathy, who had stolen his position. V called their street contact and old friend Jackie Welles to meet at Lizzie's Bar. While there V discussed the details of the job, however Jackie was unwilling to do it, and did not want V to go through with it either. During the conversation, the two were cornered by Arasaka agents under Abernathy's command, they stripped V of their corporate status and took the information regarding Jenkins. They attempted to bring in V as well, but relented after being threatened by Jackie. V lamented that their life effectively over, However Jackie claimed that they were in fact finally free of the corporate world. He then allowed V to stay at his home until they got back on their feet.

2077
V stayed with Jackie for six months, doing mercenary jobs together while improving their street cred. Eventually, V managed to save enough money to rent an apartment of their own in Megabuilding H10.

Around the last week of April 2077, after completing a job for Wakako Okada, V and Jackie were contacted by another fixer named Dexter DeShawn. They, along with Netrunner T-Bug, were hired to break into Konpeki Plaza and steal a Relic from Yorinobu Arasaka for Evelyn Parker. V undertook preparation for the heist, meeting with Parker to locate the device and retrieving a Flathead from the Maelstrom gang to assist them.

After finishing planning at the Afterlife, V and the crew undertook the heist and successfully retrieved the Relic from Konpeki Plaza. However, they were forced to hide when Yorinobu returned to his apartment and met with his father, Saburo Arasaka, in the room and murdered him. With security increased in the building, T-Bug was quickly discovered and killed by Arasaka's netrunners remotely, moments after breaching the door security. V and Jackie tried to move towards a ladder to escape but an Arasaka's drone found them and shot at them. They jumped off and fell down through a glass roof, leaving Jackie seriously wounded and the container of the Relic damaged, causing the Relic's integrity to drop. To avoid further damage to the Relic, Jackie slotted the shard into his neural interface. Jackie and V escaped on the Delamain cab, after being chased by Arasaka drones. On the way to No-Tell Motel, Jackie succumbed to his critical wounds. Before Jackie breathed his last, he used up his last effort to slot the Relic into V to keep it safe.

At the rendezvous point inside the No-Tell Motel, DeShawn shot V in the head and dumped V's body in the landfill to cover his track, with the Relic remaining slotted in V's neural interface.

However, the Relic successfully resurrected V sometime later, and V tried to crawl out of the garbage. Located by Saburo's ex-bodyguard Goro Takemura, they were brought back to Night City and to Viktor Vektor's clinic. Whilst recovering there, V learned that the Relic was overriding their consciousness with an engram of Johnny Silverhand, and that they had only a short time left to live. Misty then brings V back to their apartment to rest. Later that night, the engram of Johnny Silverhand starts assaulting V, demanding them to commit suicide. Despite some difficulty and struggle, V succeeds in taking the pills that Misty gave them. Meeting with Goro, V was asked to help testify to Saburo's heir, Hanako, and expose Yorinobu's crime. At the same time, they decided to investigate various leads into removing the Relic, including Evelyn and its creator Anders Hellman.

With help from Judy Alvarez, V located Evelyn and learned that she was initially hired by the Voodoo Boys to steal the Relic, though only for Silverhand's engram. Meeting with Placide, they arranged to help them bypass the Blackwall and contact Alt Cunningham, a legendary netrunner and Johnny's former girlfriend. Through Alt, V learned that they could extract the engram through Soulkiller and rewrite it with their consciousness, though only within Arasaka's Mikoshi system. After contacting Rogue Amendiares, V learned that Hellman was attempting to defect to Kang Tao. Working with Panam Palmer and the Aldecaldos, they ambushed his convoy and retrieved him. Whilst interrogating Hellman, V learned that the Relic was permanently connected to their neural system, making the process impossible to undo. Afterwards, V called Takemura to follow up with his own interrogation and unfinished business.

V and Goro met with Sandayu Oda, Hanako's bodyguard, to inform him of Yorinobu's betrayal. When he refused to believe them, they gradually decided to contact Hanako during Yorinobu's memorial parade and began making preparations to do so. After they dealt with the security forces and Oda, Goro was forced to kidnap Hanako and had V meet with her. After telling her what they witnessed, they were attacked by Arasaka forces led by Adam Smasher, though V managed to escape the ambush. Shortly afterwards, V was contacted by Hanako and arranged a meeting at Embers. During it, they learned that Mikoshi was located under Arasaka Tower.

During the meeting, the Relic began to malfunction, forcing V to leave it early. With Silverhand taking control, they were taken to Victor's clinic and learned that the Relic's process was almost complete.

Endings
Given some time to be alone, V and Johnny contemplated what options they had. Finally, V made their last call and decided what they were going to do.


 * V went with Arasaka, eventually succeeding in their quest of ousting Yorinobu and removing V's biochip. While unconscious, V met with Johnny who told they had made a terrible choice and by extracting the chip V would lose a part of themselves. After spending some weeks of recovery time on a clinic in the Arasaka Orbital Station in space, either Hellman or Takemura brought news that the operation hadn't work out in the end and that V only has six months left to live. Takemura was more specific mentioning that V won't live to see the winter. Nevertheless, a proposition was made for V. The difficult choice of accepting or refusing an offer from Arasaka.
 * V decided to become an engram. Their psyche will be locked in Mikoshi until a suitable body is found for them.
 * V decided to return to Night City and live out the last six months they have left.


 * After giving control over their body, Johnny made a strike team with Rogue Amendiares and Crispin Weyland, crashing into Arasaka Tower with an AV, and reaching Mikoshi after fighting their way down. Otherwise, V entered Arasaka Tower by the front door and fought their way down to Mikoshi all by themselves.
 * V dies if they are defeated in combat during the assault on Arasaka Tower in (Don't Fear) The Reaper, where it will play out the same as the "Suicide" ending.
 * Once in the Net, V and Johnny met with Alt Cunningham, who told them that even though they had been finally separated, the biochip had changed too much of V's brain, and if they returned they would die after six months. Instead she advised Johnny to go back as the body wouldn't reject his psyche.
 * V followed Alt beyond the Blackwall. A few months after those events, Johnny chose to leave Night City, feeling grateful to live again but sad for how things turned out in regards to V's fate.
 * Johnny followed Alt beyond the Blackwall. V became a legend of Night City. Knowing how little time they had left, V decided to make the most of it. At some point during the next two months, a mysterious person known as Mr. Blue Eyes hired V to arrange a heist on the Crystal Palace. The day V left to space, Mr. B promised them that if they are successful in their mission, they will gain more than they can even imagine.
 * V followed Alt beyond the Blackwall. A few months after those events, Johnny chose to leave Night City, feeling grateful to live again but sad for how things turned out in regards to V's fate.
 * Johnny followed Alt beyond the Blackwall. V became a legend of Night City. Knowing how little time they had left, V decided to make the most of it. At some point during the next two months, a mysterious person known as Mr. Blue Eyes hired V to arrange a heist on the Crystal Palace. The day V left to space, Mr. B promised them that if they are successful in their mission, they will gain more than they can even imagine.


 * V spent the night with the Aldecaldos after being inducted into the clan. The next morning the nomad convoy assaulted the maglev construction site in order to access the tunnel. Using a TBM, the group reached the lower levels of Arasaka Tower, eventually finding Mikoshi.
 * Once in the Net, V and Johnny met with Alt, who told them that even though they had been finally separated, the biochip had changed too much of V's brain, and if they returned they would die after six months. Instead she advised Johnny to go back as the body wouldn't reject his psyche.
 * V followed Alt beyond the Blackwall. A few months after those events, Johnny chose to leave Night City, feeling grateful to live again but sad for how things turned out in regards to V's fate.
 * Johnny followed Alt beyond the Blackwall. At least a month after the assault, most of the Aldecaldos had crossed the border into SoCal with heaps of Arasaka tech. V and the few Aldecaldos who hadn't left yet were ready to leave Night City too. Panam and Mitch told V they have contacts in Arizona who might be able to help with their condition. V joined the Aldecaldos in their journey to the city of Tucson.


 * V decided to toss the pills off the roof, much to Johnny's confusion. V then explained that it will be the cleanest and least bloodiest way as if they do anything else, people will die. Johnny told V that people die and it is the way of things, which V asked if they are worth their sacrifice, which Johnny remained quiet. V also stated that at least they will be aware of death. He then sat near V, asking if they are sure, which V answered that as long as Johnny does not have anything against it. Johnny agreed to this and after looking over Night City one last time and say their goodbyes, the camera pans away from Night City as a gunshot rings out, signaling that V has committed suicide.

Development
The character of V was unveiled at the E3 2018 show, where CD Projekt RED revealed the game for the first time since 2013. Players were going to find themselves in the role of V, an up and coming cyberpunk in Night City. Rather than having a pre-defined character, similar to Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher franchise, CDPR elected to allow players to define their own character.

CDPR designed the game so that its content and gameplay experience would be identical for both genders. However, V's dialogue, mannerisms and how others treat them may vary depending on which one you pick.

Male V went through multiple redesigns over the course of development. By looking at the various trailers and gameplay footage, you can see each new design CDPR went with for that time.

Trivia

 * According to Mike Pondsmith, his son Cody and him were really amused that the voice for female V sounded similar to his daughter, stating there was more than a passing physical resemblance between V and her.
 * V's male birthdate is likely a reference to Blade Runner 2049's character Ana Stelline, who was born in June 10.