One thing Cyberpunk 2077 does rather well is its writing. It won’t hit for everyone and not many people will get to experience it this year due to the last-gen console versions performing poorly. That said, let it be known that under all these bugs and glitches is a great story just waiting to be told.
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Part of the reason why it works so well is its cast of characters, a must for a giant RPG like this. In Night City, V is bound to meet a large cast of memorable enemies and allies—and everything in between. So, who are the best Cyberpunk 2077 characters?
Updated on October 17, 2023, by Anastasia Maillot: Fans waited long and hard for Phantom Liberty to be released, and it's safe to say that the wait was worth it. Not only did the new DLC pave the way for the 2.0 update that overhauled many weaker aspects of Cyberpunk 2077, but it also brought in an excellent storyline that some might even say puts up stiff competition against the main story quest. Deep in Dogtown, V meets several new characters, of which three have made it to the ranks of the best Cyberpunk 2077 characters.
WARNING! Spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 main quest line, as well as Phantom Liberty quest line ahead.
18 Hanako
As far as "villains" go, Hanako is an ambiguous character. She's not a villain, technically, but she holds the major cards of power in her hands at the end of the game. Players can choose to trust her and accept her help against Johnny Silverhand's advice or prepare for another Arasaka heist.
Hanako's true colors are mainly revealed in the Arasaka ending, where Goro Takemura is also present. She's a cunning person, but not without some form of dignity that makes her eventually hear out what Takemura and V have to say for themselves about Yorinobu.
17 Dum Dum
Dum Dum is a minor character in Cyberpunk 2077 in the grand scheme of things, but in Act 1 where V is preparing for the Arasaka heist, Dum Dum plays a crucial role. Impressing him and even siding and befriending him can be highly beneficial.
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Dum Dum returns later on in a side quest, along with his leader Royce. He can be killed here if he wasn't killed the first time around, or players can still choose to keep the peace with the Maelstrom out of respect for a fellow Night City hustler.
16 Kerry Eurodyne
Kerry is a character that deserves more love than he typically gets. Most players might not even encounter him since he's more of an endgame character, with very much endgame-themed quests. Kerry starts off as a bitter, jealous old-school musician, but grows to like his competition.
Kerry's also a solid romance option if players can accept the weirdness of romancing him with his friend Johnny Silverhand inside their heads. While Kerry has no major role in the ending of the game, his questline is a nice throwback to the good days of the Samurai group and has V take up the stage for Johnny's sake.
15 Rogue Amendiares
Former lover of Johnny Silverhand, Rogue is the top fixer in Night City, residing in the Afterlife. To even get an audience with her, V needs to actually impress Rogue by earning enough eddies. Rogue has a tough personality, which is no surprise given she was there to witness the botched heist on Arasaka Tower that killed Johnny Silverhand.
Still, she provides V with some of the toughest gigs in the game and even connects them with Panam. Moreover, Rogue can play a significant part in one of the endings of the game, though players should get ready to shed some tears.
14 Evelyn Parker
The woman who hooks V up for their major Arasaka heist is mysterious and a bit suspicious at first when V meets her. However, as the story unfolds, it soon becomes obvious that Evelyn is as much of a pawn and victim as V is.
Evelyn's story in Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the saddest ones, with a horrible ending discovered during Judy's questline, which has Judy planning revenge against the doll club Evelyn initially worked at. And yet, even after the revenge is done, it feels like Evelyn never truly gets the justice she would have deserved.
13 V
How V turns out is completely up to the player. Whether one wants to be sweet, or vindictive, the end result should be the same though. V is a cool character.
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It does feel a little like a cheat though since it is based on player choice but thankfully V is given a voice adding more literal character to him/her. It's just too bad players don't get to see them that much since it is first-person only.
12 Ozob Bozo
This character is actually based on someone’s campaign from the tabletop version of Cyberpunk. As the name might suggest, this is an homage to Bozo the Clown who was a popular children’s TV host starting in the 50s.
Anyway, there are only two missions with him and both are gold. What sticks out most is very obvious: his nose which is a literal grenade. His unique look is what makes him easily one of the most memorable figures in all of Night City.
11 Wakako Okada
Among all the minor fixers in the game, Wakako shows up a lot. She appears as both wise and sweet, taking a shine to V all while wearing the pants in her organization.
That is to say, she is not to be messed with. Best of all she runs things behind a Pachinko parlor which is a perfect ruse for her real work. Wakako is a key character during the various stages of the main quest and is the first to be introduced as early as Act 1 of the game.
10 Delamain
What would a cyberpunk game be without a sassy robot? Delamain is actually an AI but the result is the same. As could be predicted, when he first shows up he acts like a robot without any sense of awareness of human feelings.
That is mostly true throughout the rest of the game but his side missions on recovering wonky cabs gone crazy have some hilarious moments that brighten the character.
9 Mr. Hands
Mr. Hands makes his first full appearance in Phantom Liberty and positively surprised fans who had been hoping to discover the identity of the mysterious, faceless fixer for some time now. With a new voice actor, Mr. Hands takes on a key side character role in Dogtown, where he employs V for various gigs in order to wrest control for his own gain.
The performance of Mr. Hands is absolutely incredible, and his far more subtle and somewhat devious personality post-Phantom Liberty makes him exactly the type of fixer the game was missing. He's intimidating, cunning, and highly intelligent.
8 Panam Palmer
Panam does not take orders from anyone. She starts off her relationship with V in a hostile manner but eventually, she’ll start to trust him/her. Her firecracker personality and natural charisma are difficult to resist, even when she's angry.
Getting through all of her side quests helps unlock the best ending in the game or at least the happiest, all things considered. She is worth sticking close to and might even be important for the sequel.
7 Goro Takemura
Goro is another character that starts off aggressively disliking V. He thinks V offed his master but eventually they start seeing eye to eye. His corporate background makes him seem a bit cold and calculative, but he's one of the major forces that helps V during the main quest.
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What’s great about Takemura is his old-school samurai-like code of honor. Johnny Silverhand may have been in a band called Samurai but there is only one true samurai in this game, aka Takemura.
6 Judy Alvarez
Judy has one of the most tragic arcs in this game outside of V. She has a good thing going with Evelyn until the heist goes wrong. Her best friend disappears, is found, then dies, and she can’t even get proper revenge on the place that killed her.
She can at least find solace in V and opens up as a character even more if she is chosen as a romantic partner. Pyramid Song is one of the coolest missions in the game, but also haunting, which involves Judy.
5 Viktor Vector
First of all, let’s all agree that Viktor Vector is the coolest cyberpunk-like name in this entire game. He’s also a genuine sweetheart.
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It’s easy to believe that he cares for V throughout the entirety of the game with some of the best acting in it as well. He’s a doctor with a code of ethics that wants to help but can’t which is the hardest thing one has to accept in the profession.
4 Solomon Reed
Idris Elbas' Solomon Reed is another compelling figure and the second main character of the Phantom Liberty expansion. The stoic FIA agent pairs up with V to figure out a way to help save So Mi from Kurt Hansen's clutches, but as always (and as Johnny warns V), things are not as simple as that.
Like Songbird, Reed has his own agendas and beliefs that V may not agree with. That being said, he has suffered his own hardships, and he quickly becomes an endearing partner who's difficult to turn against when the time to pick sides arrives. Plus, Idris Elbas' natural charisma shines through him with such force that it's tough not to be intrigued by him.
3 Johnny Silverhand
Johnny is a real gonk, but he is also hard not to love. Does he come across as an uncaring show-off maniac in the past? Yes, and he even has bad traits that carry over into his construct form. However, the fun twist about this game is that V is supposed to become more like him but in turn, it’s also possible for the opposite. Johnny learns that there is no I in a team. Plus it’s Keanu and who doesn’t like him?
2 Jackie Welles
Jackie’s death is a real punch to the gut even though his demise was showcased in a trailer of all things, and therefore technically spoiled ahead of time. It’s easy to forget that sort of thing though so by and large it was still a surprise for most.
That’s the thing about this game and Night City though. Jackie was too cool and heartfelt as a character to survive in a world like this. Hopefully, he’s in a better place now free of the grime. Even years after the initial release, Jackie's death still feels like a punch to the gut.
1 Songbird
Songbird or So Mi is essentially the main character of Phantom Liberty, the one around which the whole story revolves. She's a netrunner with an incredibly difficult background, and a similarly high drive to escape her current conundrum as V.
Not only does Songbird elicit a strong emotional response with how much players end up empathizing with her, even if she does technically use V to achieve her own goals, but she's also an immensely powerful netrunner. She's able to tap into V's relic at the beginning of the DLC to offer them special abilities and is the first character in the whole game who actually sees Johnny Silverhand (if Rogue and Kerry experiencing Johnny through V isn't counted). Later on, she's even seen "harnessing" the Blackwall, depending on which ending players earn—and it's both cool and terrifying.
Cyberpunk 2077
- Platform(s)
- PC , Xbox One , Stadia , PS4 , PS5 , Xbox Series S , Xbox Series X
- Released
- December 10, 2020
- Developer(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- Publisher(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- Genre(s)
- RPG , Action
