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 in. Their gender, appearance, attributes, perks, and lifepaths are all customizable and have an impact on the story.

Character creation
This part of Cyberpunk 2077 is a deep character customization system. The process starts with the player either selecting a preset character or creating a custom one. When creating a custom character, the player can select a gender and the customize the rest of the character, which can include depictions of breasts, buttocks and genitalia, as well as various sizes and combinations of genitals. Options also include picking between a male or female sounding voice, while also adjusting the pitch. Of note, the character creation gives the birthday dates of both body types.

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.

Background
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 in the famous Night City.


 * Whilst travelling, V is forced to stop at the Southern Californian town of Yucca to get their car repaired. After a local mechanic fixes it, V makes contact with Jackie Welles and agrees to help him smuggle contraband across the Californian border. Managing to cross without a hitch, they discover the border patrol awaiting on the other side, forcing them to flee through the Biotechnica Flats.


 * After losing their tail and taking refuge in an abandoned garage, V and Jackie discover that they were smuggling a living iguana. Though originally planning to ditch them without their money, Jackie offers to help V set up in Night City and split their profit by selling the iguana to another party, which they accept.


 * 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 a few weeks before the prologue.


 * Whilst recovering from a fight in El Coyote Cojo, V agrees to help the bartender Pepe Najarro settle a debt with a serious fixer by the name of Kirk Sawyer. In exchange for paying the debt, Kirk sends V to steal a Rayfield Aerondight from a corpo agent. Receiving a lift from their old friend Padre, V proceeds with the job.


 * As they manage to enter and start the car, V is stopped by Jackie Welles, who is also attempting to steal the vehicle. Unfourtunaly, they are quickly surrounded by the NCPD, led by officer Henry Stints, and are arrested. Though ordered to be executed by the vehicle's owner - Kaoru Fujioka - they are instead knocked out badly and left bloodied in an alleyway. After the ordeal, V and Jackie are properly introduced, the latter revealing that Kirk's threats are actually empty. When he invites them for a meal, V hesitantly accepts, leading to their friendship.


 * V was raised in a corporate family in Charter Hill, Night City. Joining Arasaka, they work as a counterintelligence operative agent for Arthur Jenkins in the Arasaka Tower, Corpo Plaza. Though they are highly regarded within the organization, V is stressed about the job.


 * When Jenkins assassinates a number of ESA representatives without the official approval of his superiors, V is tasked with assassinating his boss, Susan Abernathy, to ensure he cannot be tracked. While meeting with their street contact and old friend Jackie Welles at Lizzie's Bar, they are cornered by other Arasaka agents and is stripped of their corporate status. However, Jackie intervenes before they extract V. With their life effectively over, V is offered help by Jackie and allowed to stay at his home until they get 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 his own in Megabuilding H10.

Around the last week of April 2077, after completing a job for Wakako Okada, V and Jackie were contacted by fixer 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, V and the crew undertook the heist and successfully retrieved the Relic. However, they were forced to hide when Yorinobu met with his father, Saburo Arasaka, in the room and murdered him. With security increased in the building, V became the only survivor whilst the other crew members died at the hands of Arasaka's forces. The Relic's casing was also critically damaged, forcing them to slot it into their shard to preserve it. At the rendezvous point, V was betrayed and murdered by DeShawn via a gunshot to the head. Their body was then disposed at a landfill on the outskirts of Night City.

However, due to the Relic's presence in their body, V was revived by the device some time later. Located by Saburo's ex-bodyguard Goro Takemura, they were brought back to Night City and to Viktor Vector'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. 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 Mox member 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 bodygaurd, 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 surgery 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 recovery time on a clinic in an 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.
 * 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. Johnny eventually 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. Johnny eventually 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. A few days later after the assault, V and the rest of Aldecaldos plan on leaving Night City. Panam tells V that she has contacts in the southeast who might be able to help with their condition. V joined the Aldecaldos in their journey to the south.

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 Mike's daughter (Cody's sister), stating there was more than a passing physical resemblance between V and her.