Highlights

• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners explores themes of identity and belonging in a futuristic world filled with corporate greed and chrome body modifications.
• The characters in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners develop strong bonds and form a dysfunctional family, each bringing unique strengths to the group.
• Night City, the setting of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, is depicted as emotionally damaging, with characters facing hardships and even death in the dangerous city.

In a future riddled with corporate greed, glamour, and chrome body modifications, it can be hard for people to discover who they are, and where they belong. These themes are always present in Cyberpunk and are heavily available in CD Projekt Red’s game, Cyberpunk 2077. Such themes appear in the anime, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a series that further cements how emotionally damaging Night City is.

In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, audiences are introduced to a new cast of loveable rogues in a year before Cyberpunk 2077. These characters develop great bonds and become a dysfunctional family throughout ten episodes. Each character brings something unique to this family, and their strengths are far from equal to their Eurodollars.

Updated by Jake Fillery, October 2, 2023: With Cyberpunk 2077 receiving new life thanks to Update 2.0 and the spy thriller expansion Phantom Liberty, it’s time to look back at the anime series that helped to bolster the credit and love of Cyberpunk 2077 in the first place, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. This limited-series anime was beloved by many, and countless fans still can’t hear I Really Want to Stay at Your House by Rosa Walton without shedding a tear, or wishing they could go to the Moon. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners proved that Night City is eternally dangerous, and nobody escapes alive. It takes a strong soul to survive in this world, so which of the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners characters are the strongest, and do they have what it takes to become a Night City Legend remembered in the Afterlife?

13 Gloria Martinez

It might be unfair to add Gloria to the list, considering she is just a mere civilian in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Nevertheless, she is an important character and the driving force for David’s ambition. Gloria was the mother of David and did what she could to support her son through school. She was an Emergency Medical Technician who dedicated her life to saving others. Gloria may not be physically strong, but her resilience and determination to keep her son safe make her emotionally strong.

Gloria would do anything for David, which is why she risked her job to steal and strip corpses of their Cyberware to sell to other gangs. Gloria was unfortunately killed by some members of the Animals gang, leaving David orphaned and directionless. With Gloria’s death, David joined the Edgerunners' crew and finally reached the top of Arasaka Tower.

12 Doc

Few characters are as shady as Doc, a surgeon who moonlights as a Ripperdoc. It’s not an easy business to get into, nor is it an easy one to leave. Doc is responsible for some truly nasty chrome found around Night City, and he doesn’t care which black market item is in his hands, as long as someone has the Eurodollars to have it implanted or purchased, he’s all in, regardless of quality of life.

Doc isn’t exactly a strong character in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and he would much prefer to cower behind his tools than get into a fight. Doc may display a high level of intelligence, but his lack of empathy and uncaring nature to anyone who walks into his clinic makes him a figure not worth remembering.

11 Faraday

Faraday is the typical corporate fixer, a cutthroat and cowardly businessman who would have everyone do his bidding, provided he has the Eurodollars to pay for it. In Faraday’s eyes, everyone and everything can be bought, it’s just a matter of how expensive. Faraday is slick and ruthless, and has a strange working relationship with the Edgerunners crew, with a demand for corporate espionage against Arasaka.

Faraday may lack physical strength, but his smarts are sure to get him into trouble. Faraday taunts those he believes are beneath him and uses leverage to get what he wants. Due to his wealth and power, Faraday is a strong character, but he is certainly no match for the average Cyberpsycho, and definitely no match for a rageful David Martinez, or a bored Adam Smasher.

10 Julio

By far the weakest of the Edgerunner crew, Julio was referred to as a “newb” in his short time with David’s team. The character was fairly inexperienced and deeply obsessed as a fan of David’s work as an Edgerunner. Despite the weaponry of a Militech M-10AF Lexington and a Rostović DB-2 Satara, Julio couldn’t last long in a world he simply wasn’t made for.

Julio’s inexperience and lack of chrome are what make him the weakest. He’s unaware of his surroundings, and only received the job thanks to the Fixer, Wakako Okada. Julio proves that being a fanboy doesn’t make the job any easier.

9 Pilar

There are many characters in Cyberpunk with unique looks, but Pilar seems to take the cake with his elongated metal arms. His disproportions make for some wacky moments in the character’s movements, and he often acts as the comical jester of the group for his entertainment.

Despite his comical side, Pilar can be rather crude and vulgar and performs as a Techie for the Edgerunners. The problem with Pilar is that despite having bulletproof gold hands, he lacks the intellect to see past his modifications, and rarely focuses on combat.

8 Kiwi

Few characters carry the enigma as much as Kiwi. Despite her snarky personality, Kiwi is rather reserved and wears a filtered face mask to hide the fact that she has a detachable cybernetic jaw. She’s far from the physically strongest character in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and focuses her skills on being the team’s Netrunner.

Her skills as a Netrunner are legendary, but her questionable motives put her loyalty and strengths in the gutter. She’s rarely seen using weapons or physical force, as she reserves her time on the digital side of things.

7 Falco

Even after almost two centuries, it seems that cowboys never die. Falco seems to be a modern cowboy, thanks to his soothing Southern voice, and attire. Falco’s mustache is powerful, but not his biggest display of power. Only those with such great strength can handle being fried, and a punch from Adam Smasher himself.

Falco is very headstrong, and loyal, which provides him with a great strength that deserves recognition. As a Nomad wheelman, Falco is a great driver, and shooter, and can get the most notorious Night City legends out of a jam.

6 Lucy

Night City isn’t a friendly place, it’s the wrong city for a happy ending. That doesn’t mean characters like Lucy are void of that hope. Lucy longs for the Moon, a place that couldn’t be further from Night City, and her mysterious past. The character is incredibly smart and knows how dangerous the world is, and the money needed to leave it.

Even though Lucy is rather introverted, her survival is above all else. Lucy will kill without hesitation with both guns and her Monowire. She’s incredibly athletic, boasts of high stamina, and proves herself with her Monowire skills, which cut through flesh like butter.

5 Dorio

Physically, Dorio is extremely strong. She’s seen in the show making characters like Maine bleed from what seemed like a soft elbow punch. Despite such a strong exterior, Dorio has a soft side revealed to those she trusts the most.

Thanks to her Cyberware, Dorio has great strengths to offer her Edgerunner crew. Her Gorilla Arms cybernetic make tearing through opponents as simple as reloading a pistol for a street kid in Night City. Her loyalty goes above and beyond for Maine and his crew, and she all but proves herself a great member of the team.

4 Rebecca

It was only a matter of time before Cyberpunk: Edgerunner’s Rebecca reached internet fame. The character has all the features the web seems to love. She’s short, spunky, and extremely dangerous. She’s loyal to her Edgerunner crew and has quite the portfolio of mercenary jobs under her small belt.

Rebecca is incredibly skilled with weaponry and explosions and usually uses her small size to avoid being flatlined. Size doesn’t matter when it comes to Rebecca, who uses gigantic weapons, and she even has gigantic red and blue cyber hands to increase her strength holding said weapons.

3 Maine

Maine is a solo, which is someone hired in the mercenary world for their professionalism and experience. Maine was a great military soldier before becoming a mercenary, which shows in his skills as a veteran Edgerunner.

Despite dreams of making it in Night City as a legend, his love and friendship for his crew are greater than his glory. That alone is worthy of being one of the strongest characters in the show. If emotional strength isn’t as impressive, then Maine’s sheer bulk and height will surely do the job.

2 David Martinez

Players of Cyberpunk 2077 that spend some time in the Afterlife may stumble across an alcoholic drink known as the David Martinez. This drink is a direct homage to David from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which honors his legacy as a legendary Edgerunner, and for good reason too.

David is by far the strongest of the Edgerunners, and will never back down. No fight is too much for David, who goes from an inexperienced and lonely teenager to one of the richest and most powerful mercs in all of Night City. His Cyberware is legendary, thanks to his Sandevistan, which makes him move at incredible speeds, and his resistance to cyberpsychosis makes him a legend in itself.

1 Adam Smasher

Characters in Cyberpunk are obsessed with chrome, developing their bodies into more machines than meat until their brains can’t handle it anymore. However, Adam Smasher is completely cyborg and towers over the meat below him.

Physically and emotionally, Adam Smasher has little humanity left. His lack of empathy makes him an unstoppable killing machine, and his appearance in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners just further cements how intimidating he is in Cyberpunk 2077.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is streaming now on Netflix.

MORE: Cyberpunk 2077: All Phantom Liberty Side Jobs and Gigs