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Understanding theStarfield character creatorwill allow you to craft the perfect character for your journey across the cosmos. Bethesda Studios has a history of excellent character customisation and creation systems in its games, and its space-faring RPG is no different.
We’ll go over what the Starfield character creator is, how it works, and what features to pay some extra attention to when creating your space explorer. Once you’ve taken this first step, make sure you’re up to date with everything you need to know aboutStarfield companionsand all theStarfield factions, two other gameplay features that have a big impact on your journey through the stars.
Character creation in Starfield
The Starfield character creator consists of a few different elements. You have varying degrees of freedom alter and customise these elements, which cover your appearance, background, and traits.The parts of character customisation are:
- Biometric ID
- Body
- Face
- Background
- Traits
By changing and manipulating these options, you can craft the perfect custom character to meet your playstyle and needs.
Biometric ID
Biometric ID is your first section in the Starfield character creator. It only has one customisation section called the Personnel Record. The Personnel Record is your preset selection. Here, you’ll be able to choose one of 40 pre-created templates as a starting point for your character. From there, you can move into the next sections and begin to customise and alter the template to your preference. If you want to skip the physical customisation of your character, though, you can also select one of these preset models as your chosen design, and move onto background and traits. Biometrics can be changed later in the game by visiting genetics facilities.
Body
This section allows players to alter their character’s body traits. You can choose from different age groups, ethnicities, and even ways of walking. It has several different customisation options in the menu, which are:
- Body shape – controlled by a radial wheel that allows you to alter your body shape between muscular, thin, and heavy
- Body type – likely between a male and female option, though this isn’t yet confirmed.
- Walk style – we’ve seen two different ones so far, but there may be more.
- Skin tone.
You can use a circular grid to select a balance between being thin, heavy, and muscular, in order to make your perfect body.
Face
There are a lot of customisation options for the face, so you can make it as lifelike or ridiculous as you want. There’s plenty of depth to these options, so be sure to have a play around to see what you like in every section. The face customisation options available are:
- Cheeks
- Chin
- Complexion blemishes
- Complexion colour temp
- Dermaesthetic
- Eyes
- Eye color
- Facial hair
- Facial hair colour
- Facial forms 1
- Facial forms 2
- Hair
- Hair color
- Head shapes
- Jaw
- Jewelry
- Jewelry color
- Neck
- Scars
- Skin tone
- Tattoos
- Teeth
Plenty of similar options have turned up in previous Bethesda games, but a few of them are also fresh. The sheer number of options means a huge degree of freedom to customize your spacefarer as you see fit.
Background
Your character’s background is the first big choice in the Starfield character creator. It is a short explanation of who your character is and what they were doing before the events in Starfield take place.
You can select a background if you just like the story, and think it fits well with your character, like gangster or diplomat. But you can also choose a background based on the skills it will grant you. There are a lot ofStarfield skillsandStarfield backgroundsto choose from, but they all give your character three rank-one skills.
For example, the Chef background opens up a number of research projects ahead of time, and introduces new actions when handling food. Others meanwhile unlock additional dialogue options. Beast Hunter, for example, will give you the skills needed to offer your services to NPCs with quests that relate to those hunting skills.
Traits
Fallout New Vegas players will be excited to see the return of this one in the Starfield character creator. Traits are optional perks that grant a variety of different benefits, but at a price. Bonuses with a negative effect basically. They’re a great way to add some more flavour to your playthrough, and are especially useful if there are certain aspects of your character or your playstyle that you want to focus on. There are even a few religion traits that give you completely unique missions and playthroughs, but you can only choose one. Here are all the traits in Starfield:
- Alien DNA – more starting HP and stamina, but healing items are less effective.
- Dream Home – own a luxury home from the start of the game, but pay a mortgage of 50,000 credits.
- Empath – performing actions your companion likes will give temporary combat effectiveness boosts, but performing actions they don’t like will do the opposite.
- Extrovert – use less oxygen when travelling with companions, but more when travelling alone.
- Freestar Collective Settler – gain unique dialogue options and extra mission rewards with theStarfield Freestar Collective faction, but gain increased crime bounties by other factions.
- Hero Worshipped – the Adoring Fan will follow you around, annoying you constantly, but will sometimes offer you gifts.
- Introvert – more endurance when adventuring alone, less when adventuring with human companions.
- Kid Stuff – your parents are alive, and you can visit them, but 10% of all your earnings are automatically deducted and sent to them.
- Neon Street Rat – gain access to special dialogue options and better rewards fromNeon City, but crime bounties by other factions are greatly increased.
- Raised Enlightened – gain a significant discount at the Enlightened organisation store, but lose access to the Sanctum Universum store.
- Raised Universal – gain a significant discount at the Sanctum Universum store, but lose access to the Enlightened store.
- Serpent’s Embrace – grav jumping provides a temporary boost to health and endurance, but both are reduced if you don’t continue to jump regularly.
- Spaced – health and endurance are increased when in space, but reduced when planetside.
- Taskmaster – effects currently unknown.
- Terra Firma – health and endurance are increased when planetside, but reduced when in space
- United Colonies Native – gain access to unique dialogue options and extra rewards from quests with theStarfield United Colonies faction, but crime bounties by other factions are greatly increased
- Wanted – gain a damage boost whenever your health is low, but you’ll have to fight off attacks by mercenaries throughout the game as they try to come and collect your bounty.
That covers everything you need to know about the Starfield character creator options, including all the features you have to craft the perfect avatar. If you’re getting started, there’s plenty of important planets likeJemisonandMarsto discover, as well as a lot of organisations, like theStarfield Ryujin Industries faction. If you want a major overview of theStarfield mapto get to grips with all these locations and the basics of navigation more easily, we’ve got you covered there too.
For a hand starting your Starfield adventure, check out our Starfield tips and tricks, our Sabotage, Delivering Devils, and Absolute Power walkthroughs, our guide to the best Starfield ships, best Starfield reactor, and a New Atlantis shop list for some early game shopping.
What are traits in Starfield?
Traits are special optional perks you can select during character creation. They provide different unique bonuses, but all come with a catch, or a negative effect.
How does character creation work in Starfield?
At the beginning of the game, you can alter different characteristics of your character’s identity through various customisation sections. Some of these change your character’s physical appearance, while others affect their skills, traits, and backstory.
