Character creation in Starfield lets you extensively customize the details of your space explorer to truly add a lot of personal touch to your adventure. Bethesda has gone above and beyond to truly improve their character creation features compared to their previous open-world games. Here’s a guide you can use to get familiar with the Starfield character creation features.
Character Creation in Starfield
Starfield’s character creation has 5 main factors:
- Biometric ID
- Body
- Face
- Background
- Traits
At the beginning of Starfield you’ll be asked to customize your character. You’re given extensive control of making your avatar from how they look to their personal history in relation the game’s lore.
If you’re not satisfied with how you look, there are genetics facilities in Starfield that offer cosmetic changes for a fee. You can change everything about your appearance from skin tone to gender as how you look has no impact on the story. However you cannot change your background and traits after the game’s initial character creation in the beginning.
Starfield Character Creation – Biometric ID
Biometric ID is your standard character presets that already come with premade appearance. If you’re looking for a good template to adjust how you look, you can scroll through the Personnel Record for a different character preset.
Starfield Character Creation – Body
Body is where you adjust your main physical features. You can make your character muscular, thin, heavy, or somewhere in between. This won’t have any impact to how your character performs in Starfield physically.
It’s here that you can choose your gender via Body Type. It doesn’t have any impact on the game as characters seem to treat you the same no matter what option you pick. Walk Style gives you a choice between a more masculine strut or a feminine one.
At the bottom, you can adjust the Skin Tone of your character. Like other cosmetic changes, this has no impact on the game and is completely up to your tastes.
Starfield Character Creation – Face
Face is where you adjust the finer details of your character. You can customize your facial details extensively here. For convenience, you can also adjust your Skin Tone on this tab like you can in Body.
You can cycle through Head Shapes, choose the Hair you want to have, customize your Eyes, and etc. Like other physical adjustments, these are purely cosmetic. You can readjust it again to your liking by visiting a genetics facility anywhere in Starfield.
Starfield Character Creation – Background
Background is where you decide who your character is and what they did before you took control of them. Each background comes with their own skills, allowing you to start the game with the skills you prefer to play with. This can’t be changed once you start the game proper so choose carefully.
Starfield Character Backgrounds:
- Beast Hunter: An expert in tracking down potentially alien lifeforms.
- Bouncer: A hand-to-hand expert with specialty in security.
- Bounty Hunter: Expert spacecraft pilot with unmatched mobility.
- Chef: Expert in cooking various dishes with a specialty with melee weapons.
- Combat Medic: A specialist in medicine who prioritizes personal health over combat abilities.
- Cyber Runner: A morally ambiguous specialist who thrives on stealth and pickpocketing.
- Cyberneticist: An expert in cybernetics who bridges the gap between humans and machines.
- Diplomat: A smooth talking charmer who can usually find a peaceful alternative.
- Explorer: A curious space adventurer who is keen on exploring the multiple star systems of the galaxy.
- Gangster: A law breaker who makes a living doing morally bankrupt work.
- Homesteader: A resourceful colonist who knows how to find every material on planets for humanity to survive.
- Industrialist: A business specialist who knows how to research and bolster security.
- Long Hauler: A spacecraft driver who specializes in delivering cargo for long journeys.
- Pilgrim: A wanderer who’s been around everywhere.
- Professor: An erudite who lives and breathes learning new things in space.
- Ronin: A former mercenary with combat skills for anyone willing to pay.
- Sculptor: A creative artist who can make anything.
- Soldier: A trained combatant with deadly abilities.
- Space Scoundrel: A morally grey space explorer with skills suited for both lawful and unlawful work.
- Xenobiologist: An expert on alien lifeforms.
- [FILE NOT FOUND]: No information about who you are.
You can eventually unlock new skills without any restriction by levelling up your character. The Background tab decides what skills you start the game with. However picking a specific background also unlocks new dialogue options for roleplaying purposes. These won’t unlock any changes to the story but they do help you immerse yourself into the game.
Starfield Character Creation – Traits
Traits are the biggest changes you can make for your character. You can pick three of them before starting the game. Like Background, you can’t change them once you’ve made your pick so choose wisely.
Starfield Character Traits:
- Alien DNA: Increased health and oxygen but healing items aren’t as effective.
- Dream Home: Start with a luxurious, customizable house but be 120,000 credit in debt.
- Empath: Perform actions that your companion likes to boost combat effectiveness.
- Extrovert: Consume less oxygen when with companions but consume more when alone.
- Freestar Collective Settler: Unlock new dialogue options unique to Freestar Collective faction.
- Hero Worshipped: Be followed by an annoying fan who can join your crew.
- Introvert: Consume less oxygen when alone, consume more when with others.
- Kid Stuff: Have parents you can visit but you have to send them 2% of your credits per week.
- Neon Street Rat: Unlock new dialogue options unique to Neon faction.
- Raised Enlightened: Get new items in a special chest in House of Enlightenment.
- Raised Universal: Get new items in a special chest in Sanctum Universum.
- Serpent’s Embrace: Grav jumps give you a boost in health and oxygen but can be lowered if you don’t jump regularly.
- Spaced: Health and oxygen are increased when in space, decreased when on a plent’s surface.
- Taskmaster: Your ship system can be repaired to full when dropping down below 50% however there needs to be a crew member trained for it and they’ll cost twice as much to hire.
- Terra Firma: Health and oxygen are increased when on a planet’s surface but decreased when in space.
- United Colonies Native: Unlock new dialogue options for United Colonies with better rewards from their missions.
- Wanted: Armed mercenaries will occasionally show up to kill you but you do extra damage when health is low.
There are many interesting traits in the game. Some of them are exclusive and can’t be picked together, like Introvert and Extrovert. While many of them offer beneficial boons, they also come with some caveats so be sure to read the fine print before starting a game with that trait.
Other traits can be very interesting and change the gameplay significantly. With Kid Stuff, you can even have parents you’re able to visit and chat with. Though you do have to send 2% of your credits every week to help them with groceries.
A big shoutout to to Elder Scrolls: Oblivion can be witnessed if you pick Hero Worshipped. You may know of the Adoring Fan who follows you around after becoming champion in the arena of Oblivion. Here, you can experience that again but you can also recruit the guy to be part of your crew.
As amazing as these traits are, you can only pick three of them. So you’d best pick the traits that compliment the experience you want to have in Starfield.
How to Change Character Appearance in Starfield?
Visit any of the genetics facilities in Starfield to change your character appearance. For 500 credits, you can freely swap gender, physical characteristics, and body type without impacting the story.
You can change almost everything about your character in Starfield after the initial character customization with the exception of Background and Traits. Those two are locked in once you’ve started the game proper. You’re freely able to change your character appearance so long as you have enough credits.