Dexter DeShawn: the Fixer Who Shot V in Cyberpunk 2077

Dexter DeShawn is the fixer who hires V and Jackie Welles for the job that starts Cyberpunk 2077: stealing the Relic from Konpeki Plaza. When the heist ends with Saburo Arasaka dead, Dex shoots V in the head and has the body dumped in a landfill. Hours later he's dead in the same landfill. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Who Dexter DeShawn was#

Dex was a fixer, the middleman who connects clients with mercs, and one of the biggest in Night City. His database entry makes a point of what he didn't do: he never shot hoops, jumped roofs, sat in a netrunner's chair or, it claims, pulled a trigger in his life. People were his skill. (Cyberpunk 2077)

He was a fixture at the Afterlife, where the database lists him among the big names, alongside Rogue Amendiares. The same entry hints at trouble: word on the street was that his last job had complications. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The Relic job#

Dex's client was Evelyn Parker, who wanted the Relic, an experimental Arasaka biochip, taken from Yorinobu Arasaka's suite at Konpeki Plaza. Dex built the crew. Jackie brought V to him, and the netrunner T-Bug joined them. Dex paid for what they needed, including the stolen Militech Flathead bot V picked up from Maelstrom, and a premium Delamain cab for the getaway. (Cyberpunk 2077)

He briefed them in a back booth at the Afterlife, with his bodyguard Oleg fetching V and Jackie from the bar. That's also where the cut was settled. Dex offers the newcomers 30 percent, but V can talk him up, and if V tells him Evelyn was trying to cut him out of the deal, he goes to 40. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Why Dex shot V#

The heist went wrong in the worst possible way. V and Jackie got the Relic, then watched Yorinobu strangle his father, Saburo, and Konpeki went into lockdown. T-Bug was killed, Jackie died of his wounds in the Delamain cab, and V slotted the Relic to keep it intact. (Cyberpunk 2077)

V met Dex at the backup spot, the No-Tell Motel. Dex was furious. The emperor's murder was all over the news, and even if V explained it wasn't them, he said Arasaka wouldn't care who did it. He seemed to agree that V should get out of the city, sent V to wash up, and then Oleg knocked V down and Dex shot V in the head. For a man the database says never pulled a trigger, it was a revealing exception. (Cyberpunk 2077)

V's body went to the municipal landfill outside the city. It should have been the end, but the Relic brought V back, with Johnny Silverhand's engram inside. (Cyberpunk 2077)

How Dex died#

Dex booked a seat on a shuttle out of the spaceport for the next morning and never used it. Goro Takemura, Saburo's bodyguard, traced the heist back to him and forced him to lead the way to V, whom Takemura believed was the killer. In the landfill Dex tried to bargain for his life, and Takemura shot him in the head. (Cyberpunk 2077)

There's no way to save him. Takemura's next call to Yorinobu brings a hit squad down on them both, which is how Takemura learns he's been framed and V becomes his witness. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Dex's body stays where he fell, past the end of the road south of the Medeski fuel station. V can come back for his gun, Plan B. The same dump later turns up the freezer holding Rache Bartmoss. (Cyberpunk 2077)

What Dex tells you about Night City#

Dex's arc is short, but it sets the rules of the game. The man who offered V a way into the big leagues is the first to sell V out, and he's dead before the prologue is over. Fixers in Night City look after themselves first, and loyalty runs out the moment a job gets too hot. That's a reading of the story rather than something it spells out. (Cyberpunk 2077)

For the full story around him, see Cyberpunk 2077's story explained. (Cyberpunk 2077)