Jackie Welles

Jackie Welles was a merc from Heywood who teamed up with V to become legends of Night City. He is one of V's early points of contact as well as the player's partner during several missions. He valued friendship, loyalty, and family above all else. Eventually he would plan to provide for his own family and live in luxury, but he got impatient because this was still just an elusive dream.

2047 - 2060s
Jackie Welles was born in 2047. When he was a child, his father would get drunk and beat him and his mother mercilessly with his belt, but when Jackie became strong enough, he returned the favor and hospitalized him. His father left and was never seen again. Jackie kept his father's belt and planned to use it if he ever returned.

Jackie grew up in the same streets with Misty Olszewski and the two saw each other a lot, though they never got together. At the age of fifteen Jackie first got on a bike, and since then he has been tinkering with any that he could get his hands on.

Jackie joined the Valentinos for a time until a near-fatal incident from getting shot in a firefight during a gang war with the Maelstrom convinced him to leave the gang for the sake of his mother when he was 19, but he stayed on good terms with the Valentinos and Padre.

2070s
In 2076, Jackie began dating Misty. Jackie's mother disapproved of Misty and preferred his ex-girlfriend, Camilla, but Jackie continued to see Misty and even attempted to understand her spiritualism by making a mandala in his garage.

Much later that same year, depending on the Lifepath chosen for V by the player, Jackie will have a different introduction, with each having a different intro questline that leads into the main plot:


 * Nomad: Jackie meets V while they are on a smuggling job from the SoCal Badlands to Night City.
 * Streetkid: Jackie meets V while attempting to steal a luxury car.
 * Corpo: Jackie is a long time friend and confidant of V, helping them out whenever possible.

Six months later in 2077, Jackie and V were recruited by Dexter DeShawn to steal the Relic from Yorinobu Arasaka for Evelyn Parker. During The Heist at Konpeki Plaza, Jackie was fatally wounded. Although he and V managed to escape the hotel, Jackie succumbed to his wounds in the Delamain Taxi before it arrived at the No-Tell Motel for the meetup with Dexter. V decided where Delamain should transport his remains.

Ofrenda
If V sent Jackie's body home, later, Mama Welles called V and mentioned his family and friends were conducting a traditional ofrenda to mourn his loss. Guests include Viktor Vector, Padre, several Valentinos, and Misty if V insists that she should attend in spite of Jackie's mother's opinion. V can choose to speak at the ofrenda. When the ceremony concludes, Jackie's mother presents V with the key to Jackie's beloved ARCH motorcycle as a parting gift. After The Heist you can find Jackie interred in the Columbarium in the south part of North Oak. The epitaph on his tomb reads: "Good night, sweet prince."

Mikoshi
If his body was delivered to Viktor, it was intercepted by Arasaka. Takemura revealed later to V that Arasaka used Soulkiller to find out more about the heist. Few engrams are met to learn more about the Relic's true nature. However when Jackie's engram appears to V in Mikoshi, they admit that it's nothing but data pretending to be human.

If V accepted Johnny's mission, V will free Jackie's engram and let it fuse with the image of Alt Cunningham to become an even more powerful AI.

Database Entry

 * A proud son of Heywood and an even prouder son of Mama Welles. Jackie's stubborn - when he wants something, he won't stop (or shut up about it) until he gets his hands on it. Jackie always wanted a lot out of life - maybe too much.
 * As a teenager, he joined the Valentinos gang, but realizing how much he was capable of - he quit. For years he hustled through the unforgiving world of merckwork, because you need more than a go-getter attitude to sit at the big boys' table - you need street cred. Jackie's life goal has always been to become a legend at the Afterlife and make a heap of eddies along the way.

Associated Quests

 * The Nomad
 * The Streetkid
 * The Corpo-Rat
 * Practice Makes Perfect
 * The Rescue
 * The Ripperdoc
 * The Ride
 * The Pickup
 * The Heist
 * Changes (dependent)
 * Where is My Mind?

Development
Jackie played a major role in the Cyberpunk 2077 48-minute gameplay reveal, serving as V's partner on the mission Breaking Through, wherein V is tasked with rescuing Sandra Dorsett from the Scavengers before they harvest her body. In the gameplay reveal Jackie had a car which V could drive.

In the 2019 E3 cinematic trailer Jackie accompanies V on a mission from Dex to steal a special cybernetic augmentation chip. Although the chip is successfully retrieved, V essentially 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.