David Martinez: the Edgerunner From Santo Domingo
David Martinez is the street kid at the centre of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, who went from Arasaka Academy dropout to Night City legend in about a year. Here's his story, why he could take so much chrome, how he died, and where he turns up in Cyberpunk 2077.
David Martinez is the main character of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a teenager from Santo Domingo in Night City who has a military Sandevistan put in his spine after his mother dies, joins a crew of mercs, and burns out in a year. He dies fighting Adam Smasher outside Arasaka Tower in 2076, and by the time Cyberpunk 2077 starts he's a local legend. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners; Cyberpunk 2077)
Who is David Martinez?#
David grew up in Megabuilding H4 in Santo Domingo with his mother Gloria, a paramedic who worked herself ragged so he could go to the Arasaka Academy. He didn't belong there. His cheap, outdated gear got him laughed at, he sold illegal braindances to classmates for cash, and after a fight with the son of an Arasaka executive the school suggested he leave. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
The Edgerunners Mission Kit fills in his childhood: born in the back of Gloria's speeding ambulance, nosy about every merc in the building, always hanging around ripperdoc clinics. It also tells how a beating he laughed off left the neighbourhood kids too unnerved to touch him again. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Mission Kit)
How did David get his Sandevistan?#
In the first episode, "Let You Down," David and Gloria are caught in a gang ambush on an Arasaka vehicle. Trauma Team arrives, collects their paying client and leaves Gloria on the road. She dies in a back-alley clinic. Among her things David finds a military-grade Sandevistan she'd taken off a dead cyberpsycho and planned to sell. With nothing left, he makes the ripperdoc Doc put it in. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
The Sandevistan speeds up its user's reflexes so the world seems to slow down. It should have been too much for a kid with no other chrome, but David handled it, and it became the thing that defined him. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
David, Lucy and Maine's crew#
On the train David catches a netrunner, Lucy, pickpocketing data shards and teams up with her. She brings him to Maine's crew, who wanted the Sandevistan Gloria was meant to sell them. Maine lets David join instead. With Maine, Dorio, Kiwi, Pilar, Rebecca and the driver Falco, David becomes an edgerunner, and he and Lucy fall for each other. He promises to take her to the Moon. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
Maine is the man David wants to become. When Maine's own chrome drives him into cyberpsychosis in "Girl on Fire," he kills Dorio, then blows himself up in front of MaxTac, telling David to get out. David walks away carrying Maine's arm and his ideas about how to live. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
Why did David go cyberpsycho?#
After a time skip, David leads the crew, wears Gloria's yellow paramedic jacket and has been rebuilt with Maine-style gorilla arms and a projectile launcher. Doc warns he's becoming "Adam Smasher 2.0." Lucy has withdrawn from jobs, secretly killing anyone who gets close to data that would make David an Arasaka test subject. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
It falls apart in "Stay." David kills a secretary who reminds him of his mother, freezes on a job, and collapses at home. Doc tells him a downgrade is the only way out. David refuses and takes the drugs instead. By the next job he's on nine times the dose of suppressants, with Rebecca injecting him between fights. When Lucy confronts him about his chrome, he suggests they break up. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
How did David Martinez die?#
Faraday, the crew's fixer, captures Lucy and uses her voice to get David into a prototype Arasaka cyberskeleton, a field test meant for Arasaka's benefit. David wipes out a Militech force, learns the truth and heads for Arasaka Tower. There he cripples Faraday, who dies when Smasher's attack throws him from the tower, and gets Lucy out, but Smasher arrives. In the final episode, "My Moon My Man," Smasher kills Rebecca, rips the cyberskeleton apart and shoots David in the head, while Falco drives off with Lucy because that's what David asked him to do. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
Is David Martinez in Cyberpunk 2077?#
Not alive. V can find his niche at the North Oak Columbarium, with Lucy's epitaph saying he didn't take her to the Moon but was there with her anyway. In the side job "Over the Edge," V watches the old cyberpsycho braindance from the first episode at Megabuilding H4 and asks around about David. Falco later sends a message and leaves David's jacket for V. The Afterlife also serves a cocktail named after him. (Cyberpunk 2077)
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 doesn't bring him back, as far as anything announced shows. CD Projekt Red describes the 20 October 2026 series as a 10-episode standalone story with a fresh cast of characters. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 premiere date announced alongside new trailer)
Frequently asked questions
- How did David Martinez die?
- Adam Smasher killed him outside Arasaka Tower in 2076. Smasher tore apart the prototype cyberskeleton David was wearing and shot him in the head, while Falco got Lucy away.
- Why did David go cyberpsycho?
- He kept adding military-grade chrome, copying his dead mentor Maine, and refused to downgrade even when Doc warned him. He had an unusually high tolerance, but by the end he was surviving on suppressant drugs, and the Arasaka cyberskeleton pushed him over the edge.
- Is David Martinez in Cyberpunk 2077?
- Not in person. Cyberpunk 2077 is set the year after his death, and V can find his niche at the North Oak Columbarium and get his yellow jacket through the side job "Over the Edge."
- How old was David Martinez?
- He was a teenager in Edgerunners, still at the Arasaka Academy when the series starts, and died after the series' time skip in 2076.
- Is David in Edgerunners 2?
- Nothing announced says so. CD Projekt Red bills Edgerunners 2, out on Netflix on 20 October 2026, as a 10-episode standalone series with a fresh cast. David died at the end of the first series.
Sources
- VideoCyberpunk: Edgerunners, Studio Trigger and CD Projekt Red, Netflix, 2022
- GameCyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red, 2020; Edgerunners content added in update 1.6, 2022
- BookCyberpunk: Edgerunners Mission Kit, R. Talsorian Games, 2024
- WebCyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 premiere date announced alongside new trailer, CD Projekt Red press release, 21 August 2026
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
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