This guide will show you how to create a male V in the character creator that looks like David Martinez, the protagonist of Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime, as well as where and how to obtain different clothing items to match his outfit and Cyberware to play his build!
Important note: This guide aims to create as perfect and authentic character in Cyberpunk 2077 as possible. In each section below I will list some alternative options that may increase your build’s power and features at the expense of being true to the anime character from the Edgerunners series.
Lifepath Choice
We know that Lifepaths in Cyberpunk 2077 don’t provide significant unique opportunities, but if you want to stay true to David’s character from Edgerunners, you have to play with a Streetkid origin.
David is a typical kid from Santo Domingo. There’s hardly any better option than Streetkid to play if role-play is your top priority. Plus, you will see unique dialogue lines and some mini events here and there that differ compared to other lifepaths.
If you have already played that lifepath and want to explore other options, neither Corpo nor Nomad will break the David Martinez Build you will be going for. It’s a matter of personal preference and depends on how much of a role-player you want to be.
Character Creation Process and Notable Choices
Some elements of David’s appearance have several great options while others don’t have a strong match.
With what is available in the character creator, clothing department and even gear, I will list everything you can use and explain why these are the best choices.
Of course, at the end I will summarize things and present you with a list of things to do to get the best matching result.
Skin Tone and Skin Type
David’s skin tone is slightly pinker than any of the options available, but I think Skin Tone 1 and 2 offer a similar level of brightness.
There isn’t a clear match for Skin Type. The 5th option offers very even skin without any blemishes that matches better with the lack of detail present in the anime style, but it comes with a beauty mark that David does not have.
Type 1 has more details that match closer to what an average person looks like without adding anything more substantial.
Hair
David’s hair is characterized by being quite tall and spiky on the top with a hard fade on the side that has a distinct pattern. There are 3 hairstyles that are quite similar to David’s hairdo, but each one deviates in a single way and it’s also impossible to match the pattern in his fade.
Option 18 matches the best from the front in terms of overall style, but David only has hair on the top of his head; he doesn’t have the rat tail:
Option 15 nails it in terms of overall volume and cut, while also featuring a unique fade on the neck. The only drawback is the hair is a lot more styled and manicured, like a hedge at a Corpo’s house, compared to David’s random bush growing out of the sidewalk:
Option 38 lacks the volume of David’s hair, but it’s the most accurate option in every other regard:
Eyes, Eyebrows, and Eyelashes
David has big brown eyes that aren’t set too wide or narrow, so Eyes 3 with the brownest color is what we’re after. His eyelashes are pretty pronounced though, to the extent that you might even want to incorporate a bit of brown eye shadow.
I opted instead to make his lashes a bit darker since eyelashes often are and it helps to accentuate this trait without using makeup.
His eyebrows are very thin but angular. You get to pick one. Eyebrows 2 gives you angularity while Eyebrows 3 gives you thinness.
Nose
David is an anime character, so he has a very small nose. It’s also pointed slightly up since we can often see his nostrils. It isn’t shown to be slanted towards either side of his face, so we can easily rule those options out.
Noses 8 and 18 are quite similar and both encapsulate what we’re after, though I think 18 accentuates those features a bit too much for a nose that should barely exist at all.
Jaw / Chin
David has a pretty pointy chin and a more slender face than is really possible with the character creator, though there are several Jaw options (1, 3, 13, and 19) that can move us in that direction. I had a hard time picking which Jaw is most fitting partially because the different options also make him look slightly different ages as well.
In my opinion, 3 and 19 are slightly better because they’re bigger, but neither is perfect.
Ears
David’s ears don’t stick out very far and have a sharp-ish bend about halfway up. It seems that the ears are not meant to be one of his main features like his hair. The bend is not always present either, so I think Ears 8 is one of the best options. None are really a great fit though.
Mouth, Teeth, and Beard
David doesn’t have lips or a beard, so we can turn the latter off and have to resort to using the smallest lips available. You’ll find those on Mouth 10. David also has regular white teeth, so the default Teeth 00 are fine.
Overall body appearance
Here is an overall appearance of David Martinez’s body type and features that I suggest for the closest match wit the anime character:
- Male
- Skin Tone 1
- Skin Type 5 (1 is less smooth, but no mole)
- Hairstyle 18 (15 and 38 also work well)
- Hair Color 27 (brownest)
- Eyes 3 (big)
- Eye Color 1
- Eyebrows 2 (3 is also good)
- Eyebrow Color 27 (brownest)
- Eyelash Color 6 (darker brown)
- Nose 8 (uniform, small, slight upward slant)
- Mouth 10
- Jaw 19 (1, 3, and 13 are also good)
- Ears 8 (14 is also good)
- Beard Off
- Cyberware Off
- Facial Scars Off
- Piercings Off
- Teeth 00
- Eye Makeup Off
- Lip Makeup Style Off
- Cheek Makeup Off
- Blemishes Off
- Nails Short
- Nail Color 1
- Body Tattoos Off
- Body Scars Off
These choices match David’s appearance as best as it is possible to do with the Character Creation tool in Cyberpunk 2077. We know that for the majority of the series David is a 17 years old teenager, but in the final few episodes we see him a year older, 18, and he has bulked up a lot thanks to the new chrome he’s placed on his body.
You could attempt to replicate the face and to some extend shoulder area of David’s cyberware upgrades from the final episodes, but I leave that choice to you as none of the options the game offers looks close enough to call it a match, in my opinion.
David Martinez’s Clothing Outfit
This section concerns only the visual appearance of your character. Thanks to the newly released Wardrobe feature in Cyberpunk 2077, you can transmog your gear and have one set of clothing to make you look cool and another set to provide stats for your build. The build-related clothing I have explained in a separate section further below in this guide.
Besides David’s Jacket, you are at the mercy of RNG for the rest of his clothing pieces, and just like with the character creator, you’ll have to make some major concessions. All shops cycle their available clothing every 24 hours, so you’ll have to keep skipping a day ahead to see if that shop has the available clothing in stock.
Outer Torso – Jacket
David’s Jacket is the only piece of his wardrobe that was added directly to the game. The yellow jacket was too unique for anyone to try and replicate, so to make things easier CD Projekt Red just added it to the game.
You receive it as part of a reward for a new mission that was added with update 1.6. Check out our dedicated guide on how to obtain and complete this mission and receive David’s Jacket.
Inner Torso – shirt
David Martinez wears a black shirt and a necklace with a cross, we can replicate the former, but not the latter. In the later episodes, he has no shirt, so his shiny chrome could shine.
Since it’s not easy to find a full black short-sleeved shirt in the game, my personal favorite is the GOG Galaxy promo t-shirt.
I’ll leave you to find the best match. If you do, and want to share it with all of us, please leave a comment under this guide.
Pants
David wears long, blueish gray pants that bunch up at the bottom. It’s difficult to get all of those traits in a single pair of pants, but I recommend the Caution Extra-Plastic Cargo Pants, which can be found at the clothing vendors in Charter Hill and Arroyo.
I could not find a proper pair of pants that at least remind me of the pants David wears throughout the show, so I leave that to you if you want the challenge.
Feet
I could not find anything at all in the game that looks even remotely close to what David wears on his feet. Not the teenager David, nor the bulked-up one-year older David. Entirely up to you.
The David Martinez Build in Cyberpunk 2077
David’s Build I recommend will focus on melee combat. In the show we see David shooting with a few different ranged weapons, but in the game, to best utilize the Sandevistan operating system cyberwar, it’s best to focus on melee. Bullets don’t get affected by the Sandevistan.
David’s Attributes and Perks
Before we move onto the more fun part, the cyberwar, first you need to ensure that you can equip that cyberwar. Some of the recommended perks below are also essential for the properly functioning David Martinez Build.
Luckily, to match David’s build, you will want a lot of points invested in the Body and Reflexes Attributes anyway. These will cover both the requirements of some of the best cyberware implants and the perks you would want to get inside the skill trees.
Body Perks
Athletics:
- Pack Mule – Passive | 1 level – Increases carrying capacity by 60.
- Regeneration – Passive | 1 level – Health slowly regenerates during combat.
- Wolverine – Passive | 3 levels | Requires Level 7 Body – Health regen activates 20% faster during combat (at level 1).
- Epimorphosis – Passive | 3 levels | Requires Level 7 Body – Increases Health regen threshold from 60% to 65% in combat and to 100% out of combat (at level 1).
- Steel and Chrome – Passive | 2 levels | Requires Level 9 Body – Increases melee damage by 10% (at level 1).
- Invincible – Passive | 1 level | Requires Level 12 Body – Increases max Health by 15%.
- Tenacious V – Passive | 1 level | Requires Body 12 – Getting hit does not interrupt Health regeneration.
- Marathoner -Passive | 1 level | Requires Level 14 Body – Sprinting does not drain Stamina.
- Cardio Cure – Passive | 1 level | Requires Level 12 Body – Health regenerates 15% faster as you move.
- Dog of War – Passive | 2 levels | Requires Level 16 Body – Increases Health regen in combat by 30% (at level 1).
- Steel Shell – Passive | 1 level | Requires Level 18 Body – Increases armor by 10%.
- Indestructible – Passive | 1 level | Requires Level 20 Body – Reduces all incoming damage by 10%.
Annihilation:
- Speed Demon – Passive | 1 level – You deal more damage the faster you’re moving.
Street Brawler:
- Increases Crit Damage after entering combat.
- Crushing Blows – Passive | 3 levels – Increases damage from Strong Attacks with Blunt Weapons by 10/20/30%.
- Flurry – Passive | 3 levels – Increases damage from combo attacks with Blunt Weapons by 30% / 40% / 50%.
- Dazed – Passive | 2 levels – All attacks with Blunt Weapons have a 15% / 30% chance to apply Stun.
- Efficient Blows – Passive | 2 levels – Reduces the Stamina cost of all attacks with Blunt Weapons by 25% / 50%.
- Successful attacks with Blunt Weapons regenerate 3% / 5% Health over 2 seconds.
- Opportune Strike – Passive | 1 level – Increases damage with Blunt Weapons against enemies affected by Stun by 50%.
- Frenzy – Passive | 2 levels – Defeating an enemy increases damage with Blunt Weapons by 30/50% for 5 sec.
Reflex Perks
Cool Perks
Ninjutsu:
- Leg Up – Passive | 1 level. Movement speed after a successful takedown is increased by 30% for 10 sec.
- Assassin – Passive | 1 level. Deal 15% more damage to human enemies.
- From the Shadows – Trigger | 2 levels. Upon entering combat, Crit Chance increases by 10/20% for 7 sec.
- Cheat Death – Trigger | 1 level. When your Health drops below 50%, reduce all incoming damage by 50% for 10 sec. Cannot occur more than once per minute.
Cold Blood:
- Cold Blood – Passive | 3 levels. After defeating an enemy, gain Cold Blood for 7 sec. and increase movement speed by 2%. Stacks up to 1/2/3 time(s). The duration of each additional stack is 1 sec. shorter.
- Will to Survive – Passive | 2 levels.Increases All Resistances by 3/6% per stack of Cold Blood.
- Blood Brawl Passive | 2 levels. While Cold Blood is active, increases damage with melee weapons by 5/10%.
- Rapid Bloodflow -Passive | 2 levels. Increases Health regen inside and outside combat by 5/10% per stack of Cold Blood.
- Coolagulant – Passive | 1 level. Stacks of Cold Blood are removed one by one, not all at once.
- Predator – Passive | 2 levels. Increase attack speed by 10/30% per stack of Cold Blood.
- Pain Is An Illusion – Passive | 1 level. While Cold Blood is active, reduces damage taken by 5%.
- Cold and Calculating – Passive | 2 levels. Landing a Crit Hit has 50% chance of applying a stack of Cold Blood.
- Critical Condition – Passive | 2 levels. Increases duration of Cold Blood by 25% / 50%
- Coldest Blood – Passive | 2 levels. Increases max stack amount for Cold Blood by 1/2.
- Bloodswell – Passive | 1 level. Upon receiving lethal damage while Cold Blood is active, prevents death, consumes all stacks of Cold Blood, restoring 10% Health per stack and grants Damage Immunity for 5 sec. Playing cannot gain Cold Blood while perk is active. Cooldown 15 sec.
- Merciless – Ultimate. While Cold Blood is active, increases Crit Chance by 5% and Crit Damage by 25%. +1% Crit Chance and +3% Crit Damage per Perk level.
Other Attributes and Perks
David’s Cyberware
This section will take a closer look at the available cyberware in Cyberpunk 2077 that matches David’s chrome. The goal here will be to replicate David’s equipment as close as possible and not make the strongest build.
I’ll leave some suggestions and recommendations here and there for you to decide if you want to deviate from your choice with cyberware in an attempt to make a stronger build to play with.
I am listing all the highest tiers of equipment, but you do not have to wait for them to be accessible to you in the game. You can easily pick up all of the cyberware items at much lower tiers if you are starting a new game and don’t have access to the Legendary and Iconic variants.
A lot of ripperdocs in Night City will offer low tier implants. You can easily pick up the most important pieces early on for cheap and then swap out and upgrade them as you progress.
Please note that I have every single one of the Legendary and Iconic cyberware items locations listed and explained how to get to them in my gigantic Legendary and Iconic Items Locations Guide for Cyberpunk 2077.
Operating System
Obviously, we start with the operating system. This is the best part of David’s build both in the show and in the game when you want to play a character that matches his style and skills.
There are a few Sandevistan cyberdecks available at the highest tier in the game – Legendary. To best match David’s build, you’d have to go for the Qiant Sandevistan MK.4. Why? Because of its default short cooldown.
You may not need to activate it again in a single fight, but that’s what the show tells us – David can use his Sandevistan frequently. You could go for any of the other available Legendary and Iconic Sandevistan models if you wish to:
To further come closer to David’s ability to activate the Sandy frequently, I recommend using mods that increase its duration and decrease its cooldown. There are other options to decrease the cyberware cooldown, don’t worry. You will be able to bring it further down.
Good mods you could use include Heatsink, Overclocked Processor, Tiger Paw, Neurotransmitters, Prototype Chip and others. Micro-Amplifier could be useful for some builds, but in most cases I think you will not really need it.
I would advise against increasing the duration of the Sandevistan’s effect, because it’s almost a waste of a mod slot with the small additional duration you get. If you need more time, just go with an operating system that offers it by default.
Frontal Cortex
In the Frontal Cortex slot, one cyberware you should take benefit from is the Heal-On-Kill, which restores your health for each defeated enemy. You will be fighting melee often, not from behind cover, so this is useful.
The Heal-on-Kill Legendary Frontal Cortex implant is available at Cassius Ryder’s Ripperdoc shop in Northside.
Ocular System
As pretty much everyone is using it in the show and you don’t have much of a choice for this slot, I recommend placing the Kiroshi Optics MK.3. There isn’t a better version available in the game yet.
You can get this chrome piece from Victor in Little China, Watson.
Circulatory System
You have a wide variety of options for the Circulatory system. To best match what David does in the show, you have to go for the Syn-Lungs.
This is a cyberware that we actually see David put on himself during his training.
The legendary version of this implant is in stock at the ripperdoc clinic in south-west Wellsprings in Heywood.
I recommend Bioconductor and Second Heart if you want to complete your awesome “powerful tank build that never drops”.
Instead of Second Heart, you can equip your V with a Biomonitor. The Adrenaline Booster could also be useful.
You can get a legendary version of the Adrenaline Boosters from Charles in Kabuki. The Second Heart is available at the ripperdock in Wellsprings, Heywood.
Immune System
You will be spending a lot of your time fighting toe-to-toe with your enemies. It’s helpful to have some protection. The Cataresist and Pain Editor are fantastic options and will nicely match the brawler approach.
Both are available from Fingers, be careful what you choose in the mission involving him or he may refuse to sell you his inventory after that.
Nervous System
There aren’t any specifically required items to get for a David build in these slots. I’d recommend you take Kerenzikov and Reflex Turner as two decent options. Although I personally find it unnecessary, you can slot a Nanorelays implant in your nervous system. It extends the active time of your Sandevistan and Kerenzikov.
Integumentary System
This is where you stack up on Armor bonuses. Subdermal Armor is a good choice if you want to match David’s stats from the later episodes of the show. There aren’t any specific items that you have to pick. Go with what you have available or personally prefer for these three slots.
Skeleton
In these two slots I think we have little competition for a David build. Go for Synaptic Signal Optimizer and Microrotors.
The skeleton legendary Synaptic Signal Optimizer implant is available at Nina Kraviz’s clinic in Charter Hill. The Microrotors you can find at the Kabuki ripperdoc.
Hands
Since this David build is primarily focusing on brawler style of combat, it may not make much of a sense to go for ranged guns boosters in the Hands slots, but here’s what I recommend: Smart Link and Ballistic Coprocessor.
In the rare moments where you would want to use guns, you will surely benefit from both of these implants. David does use a pistol and a shotgun in the series, although we mostly see him “play melee”.
Arms
This is where the fun begins! An absolute must-have are the Gorilla Arms cyberware here. David’s fast movement extends to all parts of his body, as opposed to any shots he may fire with a gun.
This is why the Gorilla Arms is the most efficient and lore-appropriate upgrade you should get.
We see young David talking to Maine in one episode and discussing possibility of David obtaining Maine’s Gorilla Arms if or when he gets flatlined.
In the later episodes, after Maine is gone, we see David sporting exactly this type of cyberware. You can get this implant from the Ripperdoc clinic in the south-west corner of Wellsprings in Heywood.
Some lore-friendly and quite powerful mods I recommend are Black-Market Battery or Rin3u Battery, Sensory Amplifier and depending on your personal build, you can also opt to use one of the different knuckles upgrades to deal physical, fire, electrical, or poison damage.
You could also go for Monowire and (my personal favorite) Mantis Blades, of course.
Legs
In this slot I would highly recommend that you use the Reinforced Tendons. The double jump is not something we ever see in the anime, but this is one of the best ever choices you will make for a cyberware implant in Cyberpunk 2077. If you haven’t used it, trust me, you’ll love it. It becomes like second nature to you in a few minutes.
Clothing Set for Stats
Earlier in the guide, I talked about David’s appearance. Now it’s time to discuss potential gear that will benefit this David build.
You can always go for a custom collection of random gear. And while leveling up and progressing this is arguably the best and most rational choice.
I would like to recommend the Solo clothing set. It has a ton of nice Crit boosts and bonuses related to doing damage. The set consists of five items and they are all available for loot in the world.
In fact, I have a great guide and walkthrough showing you how and where to pick up all of the Clothing items from the Solo Set in Cyberpunk 2077. The shirt is almost clear black, which is a close-enough fit if you are not looking for a perfect match with David’s shirt.
As promised, I did my best to stay true to the anime character from the Cyberpunk Edgerunners series on Netflix. I hope you have enjoyed this guide and am looking forward to see what builds you come up with.
If you are curious, check out my other guides from the Cyberpunk Edgerunners guides collection I have built since the release of the TV Series. It includes the complete list of all locations from Edgerunners in Cyberpunk 2077 and the full catalog of all weapons and cyberwar from Edgerunners in Cyberpunk 2077.