Starfield character creator
A deep-dive customization guide to creating your perfect Spacefarer with the Starfield character creation menu.
Before you fly your ship anywhere in search of anomalies and adventure, you are going to be crafting your own unique Spacefarer with the Starfield character creation screen. Fans of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout Series will likely recognize a number of tabs and options, but let’s break down all of the elements you can customize so you are up and running as fast as possible.
But if you just want to dive into the many Starfield locations or build your outpost, don’t worry! You can always change your appearance later by visiting an ENHANCE genetics facility.
The main Starfield character creation options are:
Biometric ID
Biometric ID is the first major section in the Starfield character creation screen and contains one option: the Personnel Record.
Biometric IDs off you a selection of 40 presets which Bethesda have generated for you. Each of these presets is quite unique and feature a range of hairstyles, tattoos, jewellery, and body types. Mechanically, there is no difference between presets, but you’ll need to select one to kickstart any character creation fine-tuning you want to perform.
Once you’ve found your favorite Starfield preset, you can customize your character further with the Body and Face tabs. Or, if you just want to get into the game, you can select a preset from the Biometric ID tab and choose your Starfield background and Starfield traits.
Body
The second major option in the character creation screen allows you to customize your body shape with a radial wheel for ‘Muscular’, ‘Thin’ and ‘Heavy’. It’s worth spending a few minutes exploring all three sections of the radial wheel to see what effect it has on your character so you can strike a balance that suits you.
You will also get to choose your body type here, which comes down to masculine or feminine (note that this does not decide your character’s Starfield pronouns, which you can fully customize at the end of the Starfield character creation process).
Finally, make sure you check all of the walk styles so you can see how your character will look when strolling around the Settled Systems. There aren’t a lot of options here for character customization, but it’s notable that previous Bethesda games didn’t have a walk style option, so even two options is an improvement.
The last slider in the Body tab allows you to choose your skin tone.
All of these options can be changed at any point in Starfield by visiting a genetics facility such as the ENHANCE – New Atlantis branch.
Face
From the Face menu, you can select a wide range of preset options for sin tone, head shape, hair, hair color, and any facial hair you might like. You can also fine-tune every aspect of your face should you choose, allowing you to create a truly unique character. The list of face customization options are extensive, especially when you start using the sliders to make minute changes.
The ‘Face’ section contains the following character customization options:
- Skin tone
- Head shapes
- Hair
- Hair color
- Facial hair
- Facial hair color
- Eyes
- Eye color
- Chin
- Neck
- Jewelry
- Jewelry color
- Dermaesthetic
- Complexion color temp
- Complexion blemishes
- Scars
- Facial forms 1
- Facial forms 2
- Tattoos
The first few options are generalized settings for players that don’t want to adjsut the minutae of their character’s appearance, and you can be sure that Starfield modders are expanding these options even further.
Complexion blemishes, scars, the two facial forms, and tattoos provide further customization options, though it is not possible to adjust the placement of these scars without mod support. Many of the tattoos have a futuristic tech-vibe to them, so make sure to check the full slider to see which, if any, tattoos grab your interest.
The number of options on display are already a lot to get your head around, so don’t worry if you want to skip customizing everything; you can always head to a genetics facility later to change your character’s appearance.
Credit where credit is due, Bethesda’s character models have never looked more realistic. According to Bethesda’s Lead Tech Artist Felipe Nogueira, Starfield has the most “highly detailed and diverse characters” yet by scanning “a wide range of faces from different age groups and ethnicities” which were then mixed and matched to create a massive database of realistic characters.
Background
From here, your choices will start to majorly affect gameplay. Your Starfield background provides you with your first Starfield skills, so make sure you check out our guide for the best Starfield backgrounds. However, you don’t have to pick the most optimal background based on skills. Each background provides unique NPC and dialog interactions in a number of locations, so pick the background that resonates with you the most.
The career you choose represents the life your character had before becoming a miner for Argos Extractors during the Starfield opening. It’s never fully clear why you left your career behind to pursue mining on a remote planet, so pick a background for its flavor text – perhaps your character looks like they were a Chef in their past life – or you can pick a career based on the skills it grants you.
For a full list of Starfield backgrounds, check out our database.
Traits
The final tab in the Starfield character creator allows you to choose up to three Starfield traits. The best Starfield traits bring an overwhelming benefit with few downsides. Some traits seem pretty harsh, such as with the Kid Stuff trait which deducts 10% of all the credits you earn and sends it to your parents! However, in practice you’ll add two NPCs to your playthrough, and even get a ton of free items, weapons, and even a free ship: the Wanderwell. We’d say that’s worth a measly 500 credits per in-game week.
Some traits are easier to swallow if you don’t want to Mom and Dad showing up at your workplace, and add a bit of flavor to your playthrough. As an example, the Introvert trait gives you bonuses for playing without a companion, but you could also take a trait that aligns you with one of the Starfield factions. Choosing to worship The Great Serpent with the Serpent’s Embrace trait will diffuse a potential firefight when encountering religious fanatics of the House Va’ruun.
Traits are completely optional, so you can skip this step entirely if you want to, but there are some benefits to picking a trait or two.
Further Starfield character customization
Finally, you can name your character and choose what pronouns they will use. Specific character names are actually repeatable by Vasco while playing, so you might want to go for one of the confirmed Starfield names, or pick something unique.
Now that you’ve picked out your body type, face, background, and traits, you’ll no doubt want to think about what Starfield skills and weapons you’re going to focus on for your playthrough. Or, perhaps you’d like to pick out the Starfield armor you’ll be donning. and inevitably hiding all the character customization options you spent hours on.
Created a really cool character? Share it with us in the Starfield forum.