Do you need a crash course on Starfield character creation? Say no more because we've prepared this guide for you in figuring out how Starfield character creation works.
There are a couple of considerations that go into creating your character in Starfield. We'll discuss the impact of character creation choices on your Starfield Experience and explain each character creation system in depth.
Starfield character creation - How Does it Work?
Upon starting the game, you can change your character's identity's various characteristics, traits, and backgrounds. The game offers several customisation options one can go through. First and foremost, you have the appearance settings. These are fun but have the most negligible impact on your overall gameplay. All in all, you'll be deciding these things in character creation:
- Name/Pronouns
- Body
- Face
- Background
- Traits
There are several aspects of character customisation, and we'll give you an overview of each element below.
Character Creation - Choose A Preset
You don't have to start from a blank slate. Starfield allows you to choose from 40 different presets. Each preset is unique and significantly different from the others. You can pick one you like and let it serve as the base for the character you're trying to create.
Character Creation - Body Type
In Starfield's character creation, you can also pick a body type for your character. So that you know, this doesn't affect the gameplay. You can choose between a balance of the thin, muscular, and heavy body types. You can also decide how your character walks and their skin tone. Lastly, you get to choose how feminine/masculine your character's body proportions are.
Character Creation - Face
The most in-depth customization mechanics are reserved for your character's face. It's funny since you'll never see your character's face behind the various space suits until the final mission. However, losing yourself in the face customization character creation is still fun! Here are all the features you can tweak on your face:
- Skin tone
- Head shape
- Hairstyle
- Hair color
- Eyes
- Eye color
- Eyebrows
- Eyebrow color
- Forehead
- Nose
- Ears
- Cheeks
- Mouth
- Teeth
- Jaw
- Chin
- Neck
- Jewellery
- Jewellery color
- Dermaesthetic
- Complexion color temp
- Complexion blemishes
- Scars
- Facial form 1
- Facial form 2
- Tattoos
- Cheeks 1
- Cheeks 2
- Lipstick base
- Lipstick accents
- Eye shadow upper
- Eye shadow lower
- Eyeliner upper
- Eyeliner lower
- Dirt
Starfield - Backgrounds
First are backgrounds. Your background will assign you a combination of three different starting skills. Like Bethesda's previous game, Fallout 3, Starfield allows players to select their character's background, which comes with skills. Note that, unlike Traits and appearance, you cannot change your background in Starfield.
Further, your Starfield background influences how NPCs see you across the Settled Systems. Your Background will allow you to have unique dialogue options in certain scenarios.
We suggest you check out our full backgrounds guide for all the information. Once you have an understanding of backgrounds, also check out mods you can get for additional Backgrounds.
Starfield - Skills
Skills in Starfield allow players to develop and level up their character throughout the story. There are five skill categories wherein players can develop particular skills. These include physical, social, combat, science, and tech categories. There are three pre-established skills from your character's background, such as Gastronomy if you have a Chef background.
Here's our complete skill guide to help you understand all the skills and what they do.
Starfield - Gender
Next is gender. While most role-playing games with character customisation let you choose only between male or female, Starfield goes beyond that. As seen on a Reddit Ask ME Anything post two years ago, it was confirmed that characters can have chosen pronouns by their player. Whether it may be he, she, or they, this option is possible. Todd stressed that "we've recorded all the relevant dialogue to support that choice" in his comments under the post.
Indeed, Bethesda aims to become more inclusive so that players can correctly identify the characters they choose or build. However, it won't have any impact on your gameplay besides immersion.
Starfield - Traits
Then, we have traits. Traits are bonus characterisation aspects that can give you certain bonuses. However, these also come with adverse effects to balance out the benefits.
Traits can range from being entirely useless to fairly unique and game-changing. An example of a fun Trait is the Wanted trait, which spawns bounty hunters, or the Kid Stuff trait, which gives you parents. Your traits will also allow you to have unique dialogue options in various scenarios. The Neon Street Rat gives you many talking points when in Neon City.
Check out our list of Starfield traits. Once you're done, you might also be interested in our list of the Best Traits in Starfield.
What type of builds might we see?
All these backgrounds, traits, and skills open several opportunities for unique builds in Starfield character creation. Each background can be mixed and matched with particular traits to create fun characters in traversing the game.
You could be an introverted Beast Hunter with the skills of Ballistics and Botany. There's also an option that will make you shunned by society due to having alien DNA as part of an experiment you volunteered for in the past.
Perhaps you want to be a Chef who's also a Neon Street Rat with skills in Gastronomy and Martial Arts. The possibilities are endless, and the potential builds and playstyles are in your hands. If you're looking for inspiration, check out our builds section with unique builds, such as the space captain and pacifist.
While you are here, why not check out one of our other articles and guides? You can learn about the Settled Systems anime or discover if Starfield has a level cap.
For all things Starfield, stick with us at Starfield Portal.