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Each Starfield character creation option explained

Compared to Bethesda’s previous games, Starfield's character creation options gives players the tools to create a highly diverse group of avatars.

The face of a character made in the Starfield character creator.

What are the best Starfield character creation options? Starfield makes it easy to design diverse characters due to the way it handles skin tones and body types. In the latest Starfield Direct, Felipe Nogueira, lead tech artist at Bethesda explained how the character generation system was overhauled using a range of faces from different age groups and ethnicities, making it easy to create “highly detailed and diverse” characters.

This makes it possible to build characters in Starfield that weren’t possible in Bethesda’s older RPG games, which should mean a greater variety of NPCs across the space game, too. In addition to your character’s appearance, you also need to consider their Starfield traits to give your character some personality and different skills. Here’s everything you need to know about the Starfield character creation system.

Every Starfield character creation option

After the Starfield tutorial quest, your character is involved in an accident and have forgotten who they are. Two recruits from the Argos Extractors ask you to confirm your identity using a record locator. From here, you’re able to pick a preset to begin the character creation process.

Here’s every tab in the Starfield character creation system:

  • Biometric ID
  • Body
  • Face
  • Background
  • Traits

A base model in Starfield featuring a Black man with cornrows

Biometric ID

The Biometric ID gives players a base model to begin customizing their character. Each model is assigned a personnel record number, and there are 40 presets to pick from. As a neat aside, this also mimics a gel electrophoresis band, which is used to read DNA. You can change your Starfield appearance and Biometric ID later on by visiting a Genetics facility.

A character creation menu showing off a muscular man

Body

Players can fine tune their ideal body using a circular grid system made up of three key areas: muscular, heavy, and thin. The grid contains over 100 different options to choose from, each striking a balance between those characteristics. There are also three additional modifiers to adjust the model’s body type, walk style, and skin tone. You can change your appearance at places like Enhance in New Atlantis, if you so wish.

Face

The face section contains a range of options to alter your character’s appearance. There are plenty of different choices to play around with. You can modify the following: skin tone, head shapes, hair, hair color, facial hair, facial hair color, eyes, eye color, teeth, jaw, chin, neck, nose, ears, cheeks, mouth, jewelry, jewelry color, and dermaesthetic.

Background

Your background not only determines your character’s starter skills, but it also gives you a selection of exclusive dialogue options depending on your choice. You never know when your background options are going to come in handy, but the game will prompt you when you can pick one of your unique dialogue options. For example, you might be speaking to an NPC who happens to be looking for a beast hunter, one of your special Starfield skills. This unlocks the ability to dive further into this conversation, opening up a special quest chain.

We know the Chef background opens up a number of Starfield research projects ahead of time, and this could also introduce new actions when handling Starfield food. Check out our dedicated breakdown of the best Starfield background to choose.

Traits

Unlike the rest of the options so far, players can choose to forgo picking any traits if they wish. You can pick up to three traits, but they are entirely optional as they come with advantages and disadvantages. It’s also worth noting that some traits cannot be combined with others. For example, you can’t pick both introvert and extrovert traits. The same thing applies to religious traits, as siding with one religion stops you from enjoying the perks of other Starfield religions. We’ve decided what the best Starfield traits are in our dedicated guide.

And that’s the Starfield character creation system. Go give our Starfield factions guide a read to discover which organization sounds like the most interesting to join. As we explained in our Starfield review, though, some of the character creation options leave a lot to be desired.