Cyberpunk 2077 is due to release this fall, and there have been plenty of trailers about the characters and features of the game. The characters of Cyberpunk 2077 run the gamut of Corpo to Bandit and everything in between. Most gamers awaiting the release can quickly recall V's proverbial daemon Johnny Silverhand, but what about Jackie Welles?
Jackie Welles is a character in Cyberpunk 2077 that acts as V's closest, real friend, and he's been featured in most of the gameplay and story trailers that have been released. His impact on the game is as of yet completely unknown as very little has surfaced about later stages of the game, but players are nonetheless interested in learning more about Jackie.
Jackie and Your Lifepath
Most of how Jackie interacts with V depends on how the player creates V in the character creator. During the character customization process in Cyberpunk 2077, the player is given an option to explain V's lifepath, or background. No doubt this function will influence how many characters interact with V later in the game and may even lead to unique dialogue options. As detailed by the developers, there are 3 different background types for players to choose for V: Streetkid, Corpo-rat, and Nomad. Each of these choices gives V access to bio-specific quests to start the game.
These bio-specific quests actually determine the circumstances under which you meet certain characters by changing the main story in Cyberpunk 2077. The first option is The StreetKid. This option tells V's story by explaining that V grew up on the streets of Night City, left for Atlanta, and then returned to resolve some unfinished business. V gets a job from the Fixer to steal a fancy car to wipe away V's debt with the Fixer. On this job V gets a ride from Padre and meets Jackie because he is Padre's chauffeur. Jackie partners up with V to steal the car, but they're both captured and beaten up in an alley. This event brings the two characters closer and they continue to partner up to work jobs.
V's second lifepath option in Cyberpunk 2077 is the Corpo-rat. As a new member of a corporation, V is tasked to assassinate a competitor by their boss. The boss gives V instructions to contact the Mox gang and hire them to murder Susan Abernathy. This brings V to a bar in Night City run by the Mox gang and inside he meets Jackie Welles. In this timeline, Jackie is already a old friend of V and agrees to help V contact the Mox gang boss. This is cut short when Susan and a squad of corpos invade the bar and capture V, stripping him of his corpo hardware, and firing him. Jackie takes pity on V and offers to help him get out of rock-bottom.
The last option is the Nomad. In this story, V wants to give up the nomad life and find his fortune in Night City. Nomads in Cyberpunk 2077 live in a location called the Badlands. V figures that the best way to get into Night City would be to take a smuggling job with a contact on the inside. This contact just so happens to be Jackie Welles. After meeting up with Jackie on the border and picking up the package, the two set out to make it past the border checkpoint. After bribing the guard at the checkpoint and entering Night City, Arasaka corpo guards try to cut them off. V and Jackie try to make a break for it, manage to escape capture, and safely deliver the package which turns out to be a real iguana. Afterwards, Jackie and V stick together as partners in crime.
No matter what the circumstances, V always becomes good friends with Jackie. While Jackie may have been a focal point of the early story, players are eager to meet more characters in Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 is set to release November 19th, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a PS5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X version planned for the future.