Starfield character creator guide – all the options to make the best character

Understanding the Starfield character creator is going to be important. Bethesda Studios has a history of highlighting character customisation and creation systems in its games, and its upcoming space-faring RPG looks set to carry on this torch.

We’ll go over what the Starfield character creator is, how it’s going to work, and what features you’ll want to pay some extra attention to. Once you’ve taken this first step, make sure you’re up to date with everything you need to know about Starfield companions and all the Starfield factions, two other gameplay features that’ll have a big impact on your journey through the stars.

Character creation in Starfield

Here’s how the Starfield character creator works. Character creation will consist of a few different elements. You’ll have varying degrees of freedom in how to alter and customise these elements, which cover your appearance, backstory and abilities. The parts of character customisation are:

• Biometric ID
• Body
• Face
• Background
• Traits

By changing and manipulating these options, you’ll be able to 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, where 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 into a character with the looks you want. 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. We know that biometrics can be changed later in the game by visiting genetics facilities.

Body

This section allows players to alter their character’s body traits, choosing from different age groups, ethnicities, and even ways of walking. It has several different customisation options, 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.

It’s unlikely these options will get too crazy, as your character is still going to need to fit into their armor in-game, but as with every Bethesda title recently, you should be able to have some fun if you want to aim for a wacky design.

Face

We’ve not actually seen all the customisation options for this section, so it’s likely that this list will expand as we learn more nearer the Starfield release date. The face customisation options we currently know about are:

• 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
• Jewellery
• Jewellery colour
• Neck
• Scars
• Skin tone
• Tattoos
• Teeth

Plenty of similar options have turned up in the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games before, but a few of them are also fresh. The sheer number of options likely 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 that’ll affect gameplay. Your background is a short explanation of who your character is and what they were doing before the events of the Starfield story take place.

You can select a background if you just like the story, and think it fits well with who your character is. But you can also choose a background based on the skills it will grant you. There are a lot of Starfield skills and Starfield backgrounds to choose from, but they all will give your character three rank one skills, as well as unique dialogue options with some NPCs depending on the background you choose.

We know for example that the Chef background opens up a number of research projects ahead of time, and introduces new actions when handling food. Others meanwhile might 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. Here are all the traits we know about so far 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 weekly 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 the Starfield 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 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 extra rewards from Neon 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 – effects unknown, but likely works as an opposite to the Spaced trait.
• United Colonies Native – gain access to unique dialogue options and extra rewards from quests with the Starfield United Colonies faction, but crime bounties by other factions are greatly increased (this trait’s description isn’t confirmed).
• Unwanted Hero – effects currently unknown.
• 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.

We’ll keep you up to date as we learn more about these traits in the future.

That covers everything you need to know about the Starfield character creator options, covering all the features you’ll have to craft the perfect avatar for the experience. We’re sure to learn more as we come closer to launch, but in the meantime, why not dive into the world your character will be traversing? There’s plenty of important planets like Jemison and Mars to discover, as well as a lot of organisations, like the Starfield Ryujin Industries faction, that you’ll be able to join. If you want a major overview of the Starfield map to get to grips with all these locations and the basics of navigation more easily, we’ve got you covered there too.

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’ll be able to alter different characteristics of your character’s identity through various customisation sections. Some of these will alter your character’s physical appearance, while others will affect their skills, traits, and backstory.

How big is character customisation in Starfield?

From what we’ve seen, Starfield has the most complex and in-depth character creation and customisation of any Bethesda title to date.