V

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

V is a streetkid from Heywood who went to Atlanta seeking a better life. She knew little about the city beyond its prosperity and struggled to find worthwhile mercenary work within its tightly regulated underworld 2 3 5.

Before partnering with Lier, she rented a sheet-metal shack for 120 eddies a month. Padre later remarks that she knows how to handle weapons, but her preference for working alone has cost her opportunities 3 39.

Appearance

• Hair: One side of her head is shaved when she first appears 2.
• Cyberware: Extensive combat implants beneath her skin and throughout her musculoskeletal and nervous systems 5 37.
• After the border battle: Torn clothing, numerous injuries, and a badly wounded gun hand leave her looking like a nomad 36.

Personality

V is blunt, profane, hotheaded, and confident in her fighting ability. She dislikes tedious work and quickly becomes bored with low-risk gigs. Her limited formal education also makes her a poor choice for impersonating a corporate professional; she generally has little patience for technical explanations or lengthy instruction manuals 3 30 38 42.

Money and recognition strongly motivate her. She enjoys expensive upgrades, takes pride in her savings, and wants to become someone important at the Afterlife. Nevertheless, she objects to being pushed into suicidal work, insisting that earning money means little if she cannot survive to spend it 8 10 30 49.

Her relationship with Lier grows beyond employment into friendship. She protects him from robbers, clears traffic during his medical emergency, and would respect his decision to retire. She remains irreverent even in serious moments, offering her “old friend” a twenty-percent discount rather than free help 37 39.

Abilities & Skills

Marksmanship

V demonstrates precise shooting before receiving her major upgrades, landing repeated three-shot volleys without missing during the Scavenger rescue 2.

• Uses the Nekomata to penetrate armored vehicles, disable a convoy, and kill a pursuing vehicle’s driver 11 13.
• Lands shots on armored vehicles by feel while under heavy fire 15.
• Fires fourteen pistol rounds during an airborne maneuver, dropping three Sixth Street attackers 48.
• Shoots an enemy grenade as it emerges from cover 48.

Kerenzikov Reflex Enhancement

The Kerenzikov passively improves neural responses under extreme stress. Its effect grows with danger and agitation, with a stated ceiling of roughly 50–60% perceived time dilation 9 14.

• Keeps unusually high focus and bodily tension during combat, allowing her to exploit the implant more effectively than an ordinary user 14.
• Uses it to evade warehouse surveillance and survive a violent vehicle wreck 9 13.
• Intensifies its effect through pain and adrenaline during her fight with Nott 14.
• Cannot make sustained overwhelming firepower harmless: prolonged activation and repeated explosions push her body toward collapse during the Militech pursuit 15.

Cybernetic Strength, Mobility, and Protection

Her upgraded body combines reinforced structure, enhanced jumping, and ballistic protection 5.

• Fortified Tendons: Enable a second jump in midair and explosive leaps between cover 9 48.
• Subdermal Armor: Stops small-caliber drone ammunition and causes some incoming bullets to ricochet 13 47.
• Protection limits: Unarmored areas remain vulnerable. Ajax assault-rifle impacts can exceed what her armor fully absorbs, while rockets can injure her through blast force 15 48.
• Electrical handling: Uses her armor’s partial insulation and cyberware feedback to handle wires and help diagnose vehicle faults 24.

Infiltration and Team Combat

• Follows Lier’s surveillance guidance to move through Kang Tao’s warehouse using drone blind spots 9.
• Accesses the secure backdoor with Zhu Ranran’s assistance and retrieves classified project files 10.
• Coordinates with Lier’s target markings and Jackie’s covering fire against Sixth Street 48.
• Fires the vehicle-mounted Eight-Star Shotgun while Lier supplies targeting calculations and Jackie reloads 35.

Recorded Physical Potential

Vic’s older records describe her underlying potential, not newly measured combat stats 38.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Dying Night: Fully automatic pistol modified from a Lexington, with a small blade beneath the muzzle for dagger use 32.
• Nekomata tech sniper rifle: Armor-piercing rifle banned from public sale. Its slow firing rate and four-round magazine become liabilities against numerous drones 11 15 39.
• Tanto submachine gun: Uses it one-handed against drones while operating the Nekomata with her other hand 15.
• Eight-Star Shotgun: Operates the vehicle-mounted smart shotgun during the escape from Arasaka and Militech; the weapon is destroyed in the attack 33 35.
• Combat implants: Subdermal Armor, Recoil Control, Fortified Tendons, Skeleton Reconstruction, Bionic Joints, Kerenzikov, Neural Coordinator, Blood Pump, and Reaction Coordinator 5 37.
• Planned upgrades: Intends to acquire Mantis Blades and asks whether she should buy a Sandevistan. Lier advises against the latter if she is concerned about its risks; neither installation is confirmed in the supplied chapters 47.

Relationships

• Lier — Rescues him from Scavengers, then becomes his paid fighter, operational partner, friend, and neighbor. His planning helps turn her Atlanta job into a profitable escape 2 5 37 40.
• Jackie Welles — Initially meets him as a smuggling client while posing as a Barkley Family nomad. Their shared Heywood background and combat partnership lead to an ongoing three-person crew 32 33 36 49.
• Viktor “Vic” — Trusted Night City ripperdoc. Provides remote medical support and removes NetWatch backdoors from her implants 7 8.
• Padre — Longstanding Heywood acquaintance and fixer. Praises her Atlanta success and supplies work and information to her crew 36 39 42 49.
• Zhu Shen — Rescued Kang Tao executive who becomes the crew’s client, then exposes them to a lethal manhunt by concealing the shipment’s true contents 2 4 12.
• Steven Knott / Nott — Initially provides operational support through the Veterans Association, then pursues the crew personally. V kills him despite his Sandevistan and Mantis Blades 5 7 13 14.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Atlanta Rescue and Kang Tao Job

• Rescues Zhu Shen from a Scavenger hideout and gives the critically ill Lier an injection. His warning that her employer has manipulated her persuades her to hear him out 2 3.
• Agrees to split Zhu Shen’s two-million-eddie contract equally with Lier and receives extensive combat upgrades 4 5.
• Infiltrates Kang Tao’s warehouse, retrieves transport information, and attacks Cai Pin’s convoy 9 10 11.

Escape from Militech

• Learns that Zhu Shen concealed prototype Militech technology in the shipment and that the crew is wanted. Lier pays her 500,000 eddies to continue 12.
• Kills Nott, then holds off a Militech squad while Lier undergoes emergency implantation 14 15.
• Finishes the enemies disabled by Lier’s Blackwall attack and escapes with him in a stolen Behemoth armored vehicle 15.

Border Smuggling and Return to Night City

• Poses as a nomad to meet Jackie and transport his cargo across the border 32 33.
• Fights through a pursuit involving both Arasaka and Militech, operating the mounted shotgun during the crew’s escape 34 35.
• Discovers that the cargo is an iguana, reveals her Heywood origins, and proposes selling it through Padre 36.
• Helps rush Lier to Vic during acute lung failure, then rents an apartment beside him in Megabuilding H10 37 40.

Sixth Street Conflict

• Works with Lier and Jackie on Padre’s gigs, including the capture of minor Sixth Street boss Malik Plant 42.
• Fights off Sixth Street’s attack at the Afterlife using airborne pistol fire and a precisely detonated grenade 47 48.
• Joins Lier’s plan to rob the gang’s supply chain while concealing the crew’s involvement through middlemen. Rochelle Kaplan is selected as the first target 49.

Notable Quotes

“I need to live long enough to spend the money, not just earn it!” 10

“I just fucking killed a Militech elite! I should be the one killing Smasher!” 14

Trivia

• Lier recognizes her as the protagonist of Cyberpunk 2077. His knowledge of her possible future is not evidence that she has already accomplished those feats in the novel 2.
• She meets Jackie through a smuggling job rather than the car-theft encounter Lier remembers from the original streetkid storyline 32.
• She later repeats Lier’s argument that becoming a legend should mean more than dying at Adam Smasher’s hands 10 34.